First Morrawo-Wassilian War
| First Morrawo-Wassilian War (1645–1650) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Morrawo-Wassilian Wars | |||||||||
 Fall of Tyonek | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Empire of Morrawia |
Wassilian Confederation | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Gostautas Heralvei Ardas Klastinys Davdidusas Illevivicieus Kordan Bielvo | |||||||||
The First Morrawo-Wassilian War, also known in Wassilia as The War of the North, was an armed conflict between the Empire of Morrawia and the Wassilian Confederation between the years 1645 and 1650. The five year war was fought on entirely Wassilian territory and a small series of naval battles on the Wallach Sea.
Background
The former Kingdom of Morrawia had held up until the mid 1600s, a reasonable peace with the Wassilians, and very few periods of instability between the neighbors had occurred. The two countries had developed side-by-side with little in the the way of border disputes. When Morrawian monarch Rudolf I passed away in 1640, his eventual successor, Augustus I, drastically changed the course of both Morrawia and Wassilia forever transforming the kingdom into the Empire of Morrawia and quickly building up his military. At the same time, while Morrawia was centralizing its power, Wassilia was still a loosely held decentralized goverment known at the time as the Wassilian Confederation. The Wassilians believed that each of the four main regions should hold more power than the central government including the military. This would be a costly decision as even though most Wassilian citizens felt united as a people, the power brokers in the cities of Tyonek, Bursinai and Sren enjoyed the fruits of holding more power over their regions.
While both nations were strong seafaring countries, Morrawia was more quickly advancing its naval prowess which would prove decisive in the coming conflict. Something Wassilia would learn from and apply in time, however it did not have the resources in the mid-1600s to compete on Morrawia's terms.
War
Invasion of Errala
The Empire of Morrawia began its invasion of the Wassilian Confederation on 22 September 1645 with a naval attack on the city of Altapadys, as well as landing xxxxxxx soldiers west of the town to begin a siege of the city, catching the defending Confederation army off guard. This coincided with a separate attack in the Austaras and Olavaian provinces in the western theatre of combat a week later. Morrawian armies captured the city after a month of fighting and many of the Wassilian fighters in Altapadys fled south across the Wallach Sea to the cities of Eleksiadorys and Murslarai and down the peninsula to Bursinai to regroup. With the Errala peninsula being relatively flat aside from the Sunadic coastal highlands Morrawia made steady progress pushing Confederation armies south across the Inner Wallach Sea coastal plain. Wassilian Confederation leaders decided to leave the open countryside territory of northern Errala to the Morrawians as there were not many defensible positions, retreating south to the Wassilian towns of Gryius and Rostinas to form a defensive line which had plenty of access to the Wassilian southern heartland.
The defining impact of the successful invasion of Errala was full Morrawian naval control of the entrance to Wallach Sea. This made the Wassilia dependent on Bursinai for all import/export traffic and forced much of Wassilia's resupply and logistics to land based operation.
Western Theatre
Fall of Tyonek
Pushback in Errala
The Morrawian advance through Wassilia's Errala Peninsula was stagnating by 1648 and in 1649 it was looking like they may not reach the city of Bursinai. In late December of 1649 the three day Battle of Solvenus took place about 20 miles north of Bursinai, and ended with a decisive victory for Wassilia. This shook the once undefeated Morrawian forces who thought of their army invincible in this war. This combined with a series of victories at Gryius halted further advancement plans of Morrawia. More losses this far south put them at risk for a major counter-attack an the potential to be overrun. Morrawian forces retreated up the Morrawian coast to more defensive positions and the war in the east stagnated for the remainder of the war in 1650 until the wars' end.
Treaty of Sren
When the Wassilian armies left the city of Tyonek across the Austaras River, leaving control of the capital city to Morrawia, it was the final significant battle in the western theatre before the leadership of the Wassilian Confederation was toppled and new leadership led by Kordan Bielvos took control of the Confederation. As the Wassilians pushed Morrawia back north at the Battle of Solvenus neither side seemed able to make any more progress without taking on massive casualties. Augustus I had several additional plans beyond the Wassilian front and with the Tyonek and Errala campaigns becoming very costly, late 1650 seemed a good time to set sights on his northern borders. To push further south would not be of any great benefit even though he personally wanted to take the seaside city of Bursinai. He knew he could not get overstretched and bogged down in attempting to siege another major city further from the Morrawian homeland.
It would be on the 5th of October 1650 when the new Confederation delegation headed by Kordan Bielvos met with Emporer Augustus I to sign the terms of surrender at Sren.
Wassilia would cede Tyonek and much of northern Wassilia to the Empire of Morrawia directly, while much of the central Austaran region would be organized into the two new protectorate states of Awárie, and Posári. A third protectorate state would also be formed on the northern tip of Errala named Erolsko. The states would be de facto controlled by the Empire.
Legacy
Emigration of Northern Wassilia
The most drastic effect of the war was of Wassilians living in the war torn north of their county emigrating south and east to safer Wassilian cities, or across the Sunadic to Mygona. This saw the once more populous west become the least populated half of Wassilia, cities like Laurdru, Jovanai, Kinsalas, and Tyonek saw the biggest drop among the urban centers.
Additional Morrawian expansion
Beginnings of Wassilian Unification
The immediate aftermath in Wassilia of the First Morrawo-Wassilian war was of national depression, occupation and emigration. However by the mid-1700s, nationalism would sweep across Wassilia and the complete restructuring of the national government would eventually lead to regaining all lost territories and the downfall of the aggressive Imperial regime of its northern neighbor.