User:Pixy/Drometian War (Sandbox)
| Drometian War | ||||||||||
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 A monarchist soldier aims at protesters in Fortaliça, 1968 | ||||||||||
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 Kingdom of Drometia |
 West Drometia |
 East Drometia | ||||||||
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The Drometian War was a major armed conflict and civil war between the Kingdom of Drometia, West Drometia and East Drometia which was fought from 1968 until 1975. Prior to the start of the war multiple factors such as historical ethnic tensions between Afthonian-Drometians and Maroudian-Drometians, a period of economic recession alongside the 1964 Drometian earthquake and the humanitarian crisis that followed and the 1968 Maroudian revolution are considered as significant contributing factors to the conflict. Modern day historians consider 21 March 1968 as the official start of the conflict when anti-monarchist elements within both the civilian population and military of Drometia attempted to overthrow the Drometian monarchy and proclaimed the creation of the Drometian Republic (commonly referred to as West Drometia) with major battles reported almost immediately in the region near Fortaliça, Drometia's capital city. Two days later the Afthonian-Drometian community proclaimed the establishment of the State of Drometia, commonly referred to as East Drometia, on the island's eastern region as a separate entity from West Drometia. In response the revolutionary government of West Drometia proclaimed the territories controlled by East Drometia as a breakaway province. This resulted in a three-way conflict between the three major factions. West Drometia was supported by Maroudia whereas East Drometia was supported by Afthonia. The island of Drometia has historically been inhabited by both Afthonians and Maroudians who had sailed from the Veledan mainland and settled on the island. In ancient times until the middle ages, the Kastorian Empire controlled the island and established the first permanent settlements on the island and served as an important port city. After its collapse various Afthonian and Maroudian polities vied for control over Drometia and the island frequently changed hands. This constant exchange of control resulted in a mix of Afthonian and Maroudian populations who are referred to as Afthonian-Drometians and Maroudian-Drometians with the latter forming the majority of the island's historical population. In spite of its smaller population size the Afthonian-Drometians have been generally more economically stronger compared to the Maroudian-Drometians which has led to ethnic tensions between the two ethnicities. In the modern era Drometia has become an independent state as the Kingdom of Drometia, a semi-constitutional monarchy.
Prior to the outbreak of war the Drometian economy had performed poorly with the government proved unable to quell what was the island nation's worst hyperinflation crisis. By 1960 Drometia's currency, the Degnaru, had lost more than XX% of its value. Caused by a number of factors, most modern day historians agree that a lack of safeguards to curtail the monarch's power, which allowed the reigning monarch to directly interfere with the nation's central bank decisions, ultimately led to the hyperinflation crisis. A catastrophic earthquake in 1964 resulted in widespread damage and high deathtoll which further compounded the government's problems. Already in poor financial condition, the Drometian government was unable to effectively respond to the humanitarian crisis the country faced prompting its direct neighbors of Afthonia and Maroudia alongside other nations to provide humanitarian assistance to Drometia. However the Drometian monarch insisted that any foreign aid must be distributed by the Drometian government themselves and resulted in a centralized system of aid distribution. However as the Drometian government lacked the logistical infrastructure and manpower to properly distribute aid has resulted in the uneven distribution of aid to the Drometian population. This was mostly felt by the Afthonian-Drometians who mostly reside on the eastern portion of the island whereas foreign aid had largely been centered in the western region. This has led to calls by both the local Afthonian-Drometians and Afthonian government to call upon the Drometian government to properly support all segments of its population. Afthonian-Drometians distrust of the reigning monarch continued to sour from what they perceived as blatant favoritism for the Maroudian-Drometians. On the other hand the Maroudian-Drometians believed the reigning monarch to be incompetent and unable to properly govern the nation. In 1966 major riots broke out as the local population demanded reforms, which quickly spread across the entirety of the island. Both Afthonian-Drometians and Maroudian-Drometians took the opportunity to persecute one another throughout the riots. This has prompted the Drometian government to finally call upon the aid of Afthonia and Maroudia who deployed peacekeeping forces on the east and west portions of the island respectively which helped stabilize the situation for a time. However the 1968 Maroudian Revolution inspired dissident elements among the ethnic Maroudian-Drometians to instigate a sister revolution. Combined with support with elements from Maroudia's peacekeeping detachments who were aligned with the Red Army Movement (MER) a sister revolution was initiated on 21 March 1968 in an attempt to overthrow the monarchy and establish a left-wing Drometian state. While fighting was initialy between monarchist and revolutionary forces only, two days after the start of the revolution the eastern region of Drometia declared its sesccession and independence, establishing the Republic of Drometia comprised primarily of ethnic Afthonian-Drometians with the city of Foros as its capital city. Its independence was recognized by Afthonia and Afthonian peacekeepers that were deployed on the island assisted in the training of East Drometia's armies but largely remained uninvolved in direct combat operations.
The first three years of the war saw largely minor gains by all three sides with monarchist forces able to retain control over the capital city of Fortaliça and large portions of both West & East Drometia though they were unable to pursue further offensive operations due to logistical problems. Both West & East Drometia were also unable to commit to large scale offensives due to a lack of manpower. In 1971 however the Maroudia revolution had ended and the left-wing Maroudian government has successfully consolidated its power and began to intervene directly in the Drometian War. Maroudian armed forces were deployed to support West Drometia which prompted the Afthonian government to authorize direct involvement by its own military as well. The involvement of both Afthonia and Maroudia allowed East & West Drometia respectively to gain the upper hand against monarchist forces. While the theater of war remained mostly localized to the island of Drometia and its surrounding waters, there has been some instances when the conflict was almost escalated to become a larger regional war that involved the entirety of Veleda. Close calls includes a naval standoff between Afthonian and Maroudian naval vessels, aerial reconnaissance by Afthonia into Maroudian airspace which Maroudia perceived as precurssor to an attack on continental Maroudia and various other instances. Large scale combat operations ended on 28 August 1974 after monarchist forces announced their unconditional surrender and relinquished any continued assertions that the monarchy is the sole legitimate government of Drometia. Both West & East Drometian troops ultimately met face to face along the frontlines which, to date, established their modern day borders. An armistice was signed between both West & East Drometia on 5 September 1974, in lieu of the start of formal peace negotiations. The first round of negotiations began on December 1974 but failed to produce a peace treaty due to East Drometia's refusal to be reunified with the West compounded with West Drometia's assertion that East Drometia is an inseperable part of it. A second round of negotiation on February 1975 also failed due to similar circumstances. Tensions began to steadily increase on the border that separated West & East Drometia with instances of both clashes and minor skirmishes recorded with both sides accusing one another of provocative actions that caused these incidents. A third round of negotiation resulted in the creation of the Drometian Accords, a peace treaty which officially ended hostilities between West & East Drometia. The accords did not explicitly assert the independence of East Drometia, nor did it reaffirm West Drometia's claim of sovereignty over the East. Instead it refers to both entities as the Western and Eastern regions. Additionally the treaty demarcated the current frontlines as the formal boundary between the two regions. The agreement between West & East Drometia was largely due to pressure from both Maroudia and Afthonia who, through various back channels, persuaded their Drometian counterparts to end the conflict. The war had long lasting consequences for the island's population, a majority of its public infrastructure had been destroyed, a combined death toll of XXX,XXX civilian and military personnel alongside XXX,XXX people displaced or escaped as refugees.
Background
Ancient Drometia
Historically Drometia has been large under the control of various powers, only achieving independence in the modern era when the Kingdom of Drometia was estasblished. Drometia was first controled by the Kastorian Empire, a Gionan civilization, established the first permanent human settlements on the island. Under Kastorian rule the island was known as Alares. Kastoria used Alares as the site of its first overseas colonies and successfully developed it to become one of its most important trading posts, connecting Kastorian provinces in Veleda to those in Qarra. When the Kastorian Empire began to decline, Thales the ruling imperial governor of the island, evicted loyalist imperial members of his government and established his own independent kingdom on the island establishing the Thales Dynasty which ruled the island until 1130 CE when Maroudian polities began to explore the island and occupied it. Under Maroudian rule the island's name was changed to Drometia with many waves of Maroudians settled on the island.
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