User:Pixy/Great Schism
| Great Schism | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Confederation troops march in Elpis in a victory parade, 1912. | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Confederation |
 Commonwealth | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 1,370,000 troops | 930,000 troops | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
400,000+ total dead 560,000+ wounded 960,000+ casualties |
340,000+ total dead 360,000+ wounded 700,000+ casualties | ||||||||
| XXX civilians dead | |||||||||
The Great Schism or the Afthonian Civil War (5 June 1907 - 12 December 1912) was a civil war in Afthonia between the Confederation and the Commonwealth, the latter were formed by member-state that secceeded from the Afthonian Confederation. While many factors contributed to the start of the war contemporary historians generally agree that the gradual centralization of powers from the member states of the Confederation to itself led to a dispute between its member states who supported centralization (the Centrists) and those who were against it (the Populists). The Centrists believed that a united Afthonian peninsula under a single polity was crucial to achieve long term stability and peace in the region. In effect this course of action will result in the states ceding their entire sovereignty to the Confederation. On the other hand the Populists were appalled with the thought of becoming a subnational unit under a united Afthonian nation. The process of centralization began decades before what historians consider as the official start of the war and was borne out of period of economic, political and social unrest that plagued the peninsula throughout the late 19th century. The rise of the National Front, a right-wing parliamentary group and the appointment of Alexei Terzelis as Chancellor in 1875, are often considered as the starting point of the ideological split and formation of the Centrists and Populists respectively.