Easter Revolution
| Easter Revolution | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the aftermath of the War of the Triple Alliance | |||||||
 The burning of the Katterburg palace by the revolutionaries at the height of the revolution. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
  Revolutionaries | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Adalbert Adolf von Hoetzsch |
Sebastian Mertz † Fabian Vogelstein  Bastian Fischart Ludwig Vollmar Ioseb Cherkezishvili † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 130,000 |
150,000 (de jure) 20,000-40,000 (de facto) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 468 killed, 4,579 wounded, and 96 missing | 4,683 confirmed killed and buried; unconfirmed estimates between 8,000 to 10,000 killed | ||||||
The Easter Revolution (Weranian: Osterrevolution) sometimes known as the Wiesstadt Uprising (Wiesstädter Aufstand) was an anti-monarchist insurrection in Werania that occurred in 1856 from 27 April to it's suppression on the 19 June. Occurring in the aftermath of the War of the Triple Alliance it is generally considered to be the last major revolutionary action to establish a republic in Werania in the 19th century and its suppression heralding the end of the process of Weranian Unification.
The War of the Triple Alliance had radicalised the Weranian working class who endured widespread devastation wrought by the nations of the Triple Alliance, rapidly rising bread prices and high war taxes. The Torrazza Accords which were signed to end the war were not seen particularly by Weranian republicans as sufficient for the sacrifices Weranians had given to the war leading to the famous writer Bastian Fischart to call for patriots to "throw off the shackles of this Torrazza peace" to establish a revolutionary republican government. Although discontent of the Torrazza accords gave impetus for the revolution stagnant living conditions, a desire for political reform, the unpopularity of King Adalbert and republican agitation led to the conditions for the revolt.
The immediate cause of the revolution was the Tuesday Massacre when protesters in Westbrücken were suppressed by the National Guard who killed 21 people. Similar protesters backed by the police and army units stationed in the city soon stormed the Katterburg palace in Wiesstadt where they declared a revolutionary government. The veteran revolutionary Sebastian Mertz was given extraordinary powers to oversee the defence of the revolution as the revolutionaries began assembling forces to secure the rest of the country.
The Easter revolutionaries came from a broad spectrum of ideologies - although traditional republicans dominated the revolutionary government itself feminist, socialist, and anarchist elements were also present. The revolutionary leaders were mainly intellectuals, journalists and writers with only three figures - Mertz, the former head of the Wiesstadten garrison Fabian Vogelstein and the exiled Vedmedi revolutionary Ioseb Cherkezishvili - having substantial military experience. A falsified report that the revolutionaries had killed cardinal Conrad Clemens von August turned public opinion in the provinces hampered the revolutionaries appeal, leading to the Weranian government to seize the initiative and dispatch 130,000 troops under the command of Adolf von Hoetzsch to crush the rebellion.
Von Hoetzsch's strategy was to utilise attrition warfare to permanently destroy the revolutionary forces. This strategy backfired as the revolutionaries instead gained popularity being able to mobilise more volunteers. However an inability for the revolutionary leadership to organise an effective fighting force hampered their counter-offensive against von Hoetzsch's forces, particularly as there was infighting within the leadership. The burning of the Katterburg palace - the symbol of the monarchy - galvanised Adalbert to order von Hoetzsch to crush the rebellion more promptly.
Government forces would retake the city by mid-June with many revolutionary leaders either being killed or fleeing to Azmara. The subsequent repression of revolutionary forces by von Hoetzsch led to up to 10,000 deaths making them some of the worst massacres in east Euclea in the time period with women and children also being executed. The suppression of the revolution led to republican and socialist politics to decline in the following decade, emerging again in a less revolutionary form in the 1870's when the Weranian government issued an amnesty to the revolutionaries.
The revolutionaries in their brief time in power experimented with a wide range of policies ranging from the prohibition of child labour, the abolition of organised religion, the right of employees to take over an enterprise, the granting near equal rights to men and women and the restoration of the republic. The short lifetime of the Wiesstadt revolution however meant many of these policies remained only partly fulfilled.
The revolution and its failure would play a role in influencing socialist and republican thought in Euclea, notably for Weranian socialists Bastian Fischart and Ludwig Vollmar who directly participated in the revolution but also Yuri Nemtsov, xxx and xxx.