Pardarian Civil War
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| Pardarian Civil War | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Zorasani Post-War Crisis | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| Belligerents | ||||||||
 Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command |
 Shahdom of Pardaran (1947-1949) |
 Rasfanjani Clique Shamshiri Clique Republic of AshkezarLocal walords and bandits | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
|
Mahrdad Ali Sattari Farhad Mirza Navzar Ali Husseini Abdullah Al-Tawani Yazdandad Jandhari |
Ahmad Reza Shah † Gholamali Beheshti Mohammad Shahbakhti † Eskandar Pardarani † |
Mirhussein Rasfanjani † Rashid Ali Khan Sayeed Ashtiani Khosrow Shamshiri Farouk Mousavi Haidar Salami Murad Hosein Zand † Ali Asghar Bhajadzadeh Mahmoud Sadr Esfahani | ||||||
| Strength | ||||||||
|
880,000 soldiers 400 tanks 200 aircraft |
525,000 soldiers 202 tanks 98 aircraft |
~200,000 soldiers ~120,000 soldiers 226,000 soldiers 100 tanks 146 aircraft ~50,000-60,000 local militia under warlords | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
|
67,583 killed 118,300 injured 4,328 missing | 104,584 killed, injured or missing |
80,000-90,000 killed injured or missing 25,000-40,000 killed, injured or missing 75,000-100,000 killed injured or missing 21,508 killed injured or missing | ||||||
|
3.5 million displaced | ||||||||
The Pardarian Civil War (Pardarian: جنك داخلی, Jang-negee Pārdariāni; Badawiyan: الحرب الأهلية السورية, al-ḥarb al-ʾahlīyah as-pardarīyah) was a multifaceted civil war in Pardaran fought between the Imperial government of the Shahdom of Pardaran (SOP), the Ghowmee Tudeh Party-led Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command (PRRC) and numerous warlords lasting intermittently between 1948 and 1950. Though particular attention is paid to the period between 1948 and 1949, when the PRRC forces defeated the Shahdom of Pardaran, the war continued with the PRRC defeating opposing warlords and breakaway regions, culminating in the unification of Pardaran and the beginning of Zorasani unification, which would be completed in 1979 with the defeat of the People's Republic of Irvadistan and the establishment of the Union of Zorasani Irfanic Republics. Between 602,258 and 612,258 people were killed or injured and devastated large tracts of central and eastern Pardaran. The war saw numerous atrocities committed by both sides, though most historians apply blame to PRRC forces for the use of mass executions, torture and starvation as weapons of war.
Background
Etrurian colonialism
Prior to 1853, much of modern-day Zorasan had been ruled by the Gorsanid dynasty, a Pardaran based monarchy that up until the late 18th century had maintained Zorasan as a capable power. However, owing to entrenched traditionalist interests, repeated power struggles and unrest, the empire had steadily fallen behind its Euclean rivals. This backwardness was made apparent in the Sadavi War (1796-1798) against the First Etrurian Republic.
Following the Caltrini Restoration in 1810, the empire found itself facing renewed Etrurian aggression and the rising influence of other Euclean powers, specifically Estmere and Werania. This external pressure only deepened domestic woes, with numerous rebellions by disaffected nobles facing weak and ineffective Shahs. Over the next forty years, Zorasan would face numerous Etrurian incursions along the northern coast, with the First Etruro-Zorasani War (1832-1837) seeing the destruction of the Zorasani fleet and the ceding of virtually all Zorasani-Badawiya, alongside the port cities of Bandar Shahidi, Bandar Qassem and At-Turbah. The war further advertised the crippling weaknesses of the Zorasani state.
In 1848, Ali Ardashir became Shah and through a series of brutal purges and attacks secured unparalleled control over the imperial state. He began to seek out Euclean support in modernising Zorasan, often asking for advisers in exchange for economic concessions. In 1845, he signed the Treaty of Sabarvan with Werania, securing military advisers and weapons in exchange for access to Zorasan’s silver deposits in the south. Fearing a modernised Zorasan and oversized Weranian influence, Etruria launched the Second Etruro-Zorasani War (1846-1853).
The second war would devastate both Zorasan and Ali Ardashir personally. The Etrurians would rout his armies at every battle, inflicting heavy losses and demoralising his barely trained officers. The Etrurians continued to push toward the imperial capital at Razdavar, before ultimately besieging the city in 1852. Simultaneously, the Etrurians used money and promises of wealth to divide the Shah from his nobles, they secured a Badawiyan tribal revolt in 1849. In 1852, the Etrurians funded and supported a revolt by Qassem Shah in the north west. Both these events drew away valuable imperial forces, facing a besieged capital and a collapse in his armies morale, Shah Ali Ardashir surrendered on April 2 1853.
Partition and Etrurian rule
In wake of Zorasan’s collapse and surrender in 1853, Etruria sought to consolidate its control by partitioning the former empire. In June 1853, the defeated Shah signed the Treaty of Villa Barbarigo, formalising the Etrurian victory. Zorasani-Badawiya, alongside north-Western Zorasan were annexed directly and by 1860 had been reformed into Badawia Etruriana and Zorasan Etruriana respectively as colonial administrations. The Badawiyan tribal belt though within BE territory were granted significant levels of autonomy. Between both colonial territories, the Shahdom was continued through the newly established Shahdom of Pardaran, under Etrurian protection. The Gorsanid family were detained, with the House of Khorjandani put in power by Etruria. The Shahdom would have its foreign policy and defence managed by Etruria, with the colonial power further guaranteed exclusive economic access and large influence over its governance and administration.
Great War
Solarian War
De-colonisation
Factions
Shahdom of Pardaran
Pardarian Revolutionary Resistance Command
The PRRC first emerged during the Great War as a Xiaodongese backed and supplied resistance movement against Etruria. However, many of the PRRC's officers and leading figures were involved in the earlier failed Pardarian uprising (1920-1923), led by Hussein Gholafdar. The high level of support in training, arms and political assistance, resulted in the emergence of Seven Pillars ideology. The ideology drew many components from Xiaodongese nationalist theories and traditions.
The PRRC, also called "Sattarists", "nationalists" —feared permament national fragmentation and opposed the separatist movements and Shahdom in equal measure. They were chiefly defined by their anti-monarchism, which galvanised diverse or opposed movements like leftists and democratic republicans. Their leaders had a generally more firmer ideological disposition, more combat experience and came from predominately poor backgrounds.
The PRRC side included the Sattarists, but also a collection of leftist groups who aspired to emulate Swetania, anti-monarchist liberals and pro-Pan Zorasani minorities. By the end of the civil war, the PRRC would have purged most of the non-Sattarist elements operating under its military command. Virtually all groups under the PRRC had strong Irfanic convictions and supported the native Pardarian clergy, aided by the anti-clerical actions of the Shah and warlord territories. The PRRC included the majority of the Irfanic clergy and practitioners (outside of the Ashkezar region), the support of the Irfanic Kholofah would play a major role in the PRRC's victory, with Supreme Custodian Payam Ali Bandari declaring a fatwa against the opponents of the PRRC in 1947 galvinising popular support. While the PRRC would ultimately establish a nominally secular state following its victory, its ties with the clergy and the resulting religious fervour that aided PRRC forces would entrench the clergy's new influential political role post-war.
The PRRC's military forces at the start of the war were highly experienced and well motivated, though limited in firepower. Of the 150,000-200,000 soldiers it possessed in 1948, only 5,000 were armed with the latest sub-machine guns that emerged in the Great War, while the remainder were forced to rely upon aged bolt-action rifles, some dating as far back as the 1910s. The PRRC lacked significant number of artillery, having centralised its howitzers into two artillery battalions. The vast majority of artillery in use by the PRRC in the early phase of the war were limited to mortars, raging from 30mm to 80mm. The capture of the Erfanshahr Arsenal in November 1948 secured the PRRC more modern weaponry and over 300 field howitzers. Despite the lack of modern weaponry, the PRRC held a significant advantage in strategic and tactical planning and thinking, its forces were highly motivated and well-supplied with ammunition and other materiel.