Austerian Counterrevolution

The Austerian Conflict was a series of separate but related ethnic conflicts and insurgencies that took place in the Austerian People's Republic from 1975 to 1988. The conflict is considered to be an example of an "irregular war" or "low-level war" instead of featuring conventional warfare between factions. It resulted in an estimated 50,000 fatalities and led to the collapse of single-party rule by the Austerian Liberation Front to the establishment of a socialist democracy.

The geographic distribution of Austeria's diverse population played a notable role in the lead-up to and during the conflict; Sotirian and Irfanic Tethians comprised the majority in the coastal cities and western regions; Montesurians and Daksar Piraeans populated the country's eastern region; Novalians were primarily based throughout Austeria's border with Etruria. At the time, the Austerian government was a one-party state under the rule of the Equalist Austerian Liberation Front. While the party was dominated by the Tethian ethnic group, the Front supported Austerism, a form of socialist patriotism which emphasized a collective, inclusive, and pluralistic national identity. However ethnic and sectarian tensions still arose within the Front, especially between at the local and regional level. The Front faced increasing levels of opposition from Galeneists, Montesurians, and a number of ethnic and sectarian groups. Therefore the death and retirement of the original leadership of the Austerian Liberation Front in the late 1970s had a deleterious effect on party cohesion, leading to power struggles between party factions based upon ethnic and sectarian divisions in the country.