History of Gylias
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The history of Gylias has been shaped by its geographic position, a series of human migrations and contacts, a series of wars, and various social, economic, and political movements.
Human habitation of Gylias began in the Upper Paleolithic. The Gylic peoples, the majority of whom originated in Siduri, arrived in Gylias over a longer period of time. Under pressure of Bronze Age collapse and expansionism from other civilisations, their states constituted the Liúşai League in the 4th century BCE.
The Liúşai League would last until the early 18th century. It was successful in defending Gylic independence against various external threats. Its seafaring nature, economic prosperity, and democratic development attracted migration and settlement of other peoples, contributing to ethnolinguistic and cultural diversity.
The Ŋej began to arrive in the 17th century, with their colonisation activities causing tensions. These led to the Colonisation War, in which the Ŋej state of Xevden conquered the League, but lost its homeland in the process to simultaneous foreign invasion. The imposition of Xevdenite rule resulted in the reorganisation of the economy and the marginalisation of existing Gylic and non-Gylic populations. The demographic disparity between the Xevdenite elite and other populations encouraged popular resistance.
Following the Rebellion of 1749, the Treaty of Aðnat established a tenuous peace under queen Senalta. Under her rule, Xevden was transformed into a nominal constitutional monarchy, modernising reforms were introduced, and native populations received some freedoms but were largely excluded from citizenship. Her adoption of christianity as a state religion deepened religious strife.
The Xevdenite state reverted to an authoritarian course after Senalta's death. Deficient industrialisation and severe corruption hollowed out the state from the inside, while the Gylian ascendancy produced a common Gylian identity and created institutions and organisations outside the Xevdenite state. The Glorious Rebellion, although an ultimate failure, succeeded in splitting the ruling class, allowing the emergence of a reformist moderate conservative government in the 1890s and then a liberal-nationalist coalition in 1900.
The reactionary backlash to the latter led to a coup d'état in 1902, which installed king Karnaz. Karnaz attempted to assert autocratic power and suppress threats to his rule. Heavy-handed repression was undermined by centuries of administrative decay, and disastrous foreign policy caused the Cacerta-Xevden War. A victorious Cacertian Empire incorporated the province of Alscia in 1908. Alscia's rapid economic and social development made it a crucial base for Gylian resistance and radicalisation.
In the 1930s, the new king Láaresy attempted to resolve Xevden's crisis by ending repression and seeking a constitutional settlement. His efforts were too late, and extreme polarisation and conflicts erupted in the Liberation War. The victorious faction would be the Free Territories, which succeeded in uniting the opposition under its umbrella and defeated Xevden.
Gylias became independent in 1958, and a transition from the Free Territories took place. Numerous elements of the Free Territories were preserved, including direct democracy, economic model, and legal foundations. Gylian life was permanently changed by the Golden Revolution, which touched on every aspect of the country.
Early history
Prehistory
Human settlement of the Gylian region is documented as early as 20.000 BCE. Various nomadic populations inhabited the area during the Stone Age, and different archaeological cultures have been identified.
Ancestors of the Gylic peoples began to arrive in Gylias sometime between 10.000 – 8.000 BCE. Many of the Gylic tribes originated elsewhere in Siduri, and were driven eastwards by the emergence of complex societies, such as Arkoenn, Tennai, Quenmin, and Mubata. The Eşari and Dalak, who settled the southern islands, arrived by sea and are of unclear provenance.
The transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to agriculture and settlement took place between the 7th and 4th millennia BCE. The first Gylic states took shape during this period. Movement by land was originally restricted by the Yaskan people, whose stronghold in the Salxar and Naryn Mountains gave them control over the Mytin Pass and western entrance. The Zinerans were able to settle in eastern Gylias due to their distance from Yaskans, and the Varans would later separate from the Zinerans to form their own tribe.
Antiquity
Wars with various tribes and emerging powers ultimately led to Yaskans losing control over the mountain gateways in the 9th century BCE. Other populations settled in the region, including the Tanans, Rezakans, Tomesians, and Aréş. These either shared similar languages which were assimilated into the Gylic sprachbund, or were Gylicised through cultural assimilation.
Early development of sailing techniques allowed sea contact with nearby cultures, including Cacertians and Miranians in Kirisaki. Other influences during the period included Tennaiite culture and contact with Syaran Makedonians, dating to the 1300s BCE.
Liúşai League
The mismatch between the low population and large mainland made military conflict between Gylic states impractical, allowing relations to evolve in a cooperative direction. Cultural-linguistic similarities helped draw the states closer, while expansion from Arkoennites and Ainetui led them to form alliances to resist external pressures.
A Bronze Age collapse and Bastarnae invasions affected the region in the 4th century BCE. This proved the catalyst for the consolidation of existing alliances into the Liúşai League in 390 BCE.
More than a simple military alliance, the Liúşai League was also a loose confederation of Gylic states. These used various forms of government, including elective monarchies and republics, but shared a common democratic evolution. Each community formed a governing assembly to govern itself directly, and selected delegates to larger assemblies at the state or League level, establishing the foundation of Gylian direct democracy.
Low population on average prevented the growth of social inequality and the emergence of aristocracy like in other parts of Tyran. Rural areas practiced collective farming based on the principle of communal land. Cities, mainly concentrated on the coast, benefited from seafaring traditions and flourished through trade.
The prosperity, stability, and democracy of the League proved attractive to immigrants, and sustained migration rates consolidated ethnocultural diversity. Influenced by Hellene settlement and ties with Cacerta and Kirisaki, the League achieved significant social and cultural development during its existence. Many of its cities remarked themselves as centres of education, research, culture, and the arts.
Southern missions
Having already faced Viking raiders from Acrea and Æsthurlavaj, the Liúşai League gained a new enemy in the 12th century: Nordkrusen. The christianisation of the Nordling petty kingdoms led them to launch wars of conquest and conversion, with some success in Megelan, before reaching Siduri. The religious aspect of the conflict galvanised League opposition in a way that the Vikings had not, producing an exceptionally bitter conflict.
Nordlings established several crusader states outside Gylic territory, but made little headway. Much of the conflict would resemble a series of tit-for-tat raids and sacks. Against the crusaders' aggressive tactics, the League employed a Fabian strategy of harrying the invaders and refusing pitched battle except when they possessed numerical superiority.
The Southern missions had a significant impact on the Liúşai League. They engendered a strong hostility to christianity in Gylic societies, making them more determined to retain their ethnic polytheisms. Gylic authorities introduced stricter bans on missionary activity, treating it as a threat to the public order. One Megelanese scholar wrote that through their brutal conduct towards the population, the Nordling crusaders turned Gylics into "the most tenacious and resourceful enemy" of christianity in Tyran.
Colonisation War
The Ŋej people began to arrive in the 17th century. They established early settlements in the Nerveiík Peninsula, and traded with Gylics. However, their activities aroused tensions, particularly after several incidents that made Gylics think they had a hidden agenda. Their arrival in increasing numbers worsened the situation.
Tensions erupted in 1695, when the Ŋej state launched the Colonisation War against the Liúşai League. The war lasted 9 years, with the Ŋej advancing slowly northwards in the face of the League's determined resistance and war of attrition tactics.
Disaster struck the Ŋej during the campaign: their concentration of forces for the Colonisation War allowed neighbours to declare war and conquer it. The Ŋej elite, military, and many civilians fled the conquest of their homeland by sea, and landed in the territories seized by the Colonisation War.
When the war ended in 1704, a new state of Xevden was proclaimed. The Colonisation War was a disaster for the Ŋej: having lost their homeland to foreign invasion, they found themselves a numerically inferior alien elite ruling over vast territory inhabited by populations now hostile to them. The trauma of the war determined the course of Xevden for the rest of its history.
Xevden
Xevden was precarious throughout its first decades. The authorities imposed an authoritarian system of rule, resulting in the reorganisation of the economy along aristocratic–oligarchic lines and the marginalisation of the native populations. However, the Ŋej remained outnumbered by the other populations, putting a limit on the extent to which they could rule by violence.
The Gylic and other populations resisted the Xevdenite conquest. Native bandits and guerrilla fighters known as kyðoi, proliferated, taking refuge in the mountains and attacking Xevdenites. The size of conquered territory advantaged the kyðoi, as Xevdenites constantly sought ways to strengthen their grip on power. While a new aristocracy benefited from the dispossession of rural common land, high taxation and military burdens fueled unrest.
Having steadily weakened the authorities through attrition, the Gylics launched a massive uprising in the Rebellion of 1749. The uprising was highly successful: at its height, rebels controlled discontinuous territories in the west, east, and the Nauras peninsula. Their success threw the Xevdenites into panic. A palace coup brought Senalta to the throne. She managed to negotiate a peaceful end to the rebellion, signing the Treaty of Aðnat in 1754.
Senalta ruled through enlightened absolutism. She made an enemy of the nobility, and depended greatly on support from Gylic and non-Gylic populations, who saw in her their first hopes of ameliorating their position. Building on the Treaty of Aðnat, she introduced reforms and made Xevden a nominal constitutional monarchy. Citizenship was granted to the Ŋej, but the other populations received a lesser official status and some benefits, including the right to use of their languages.
Seeking ways to strengthen the state, Senalta converted to christianity, and proclaimed it Xevden's state religion later in her reign. The measure backfired: native populations grew more determined to retain their ethnic religions in defiance, while Xevdenite christianity suffered schisms between Alemarr-aligned catholics, Nordkrusen-aligned protestants, and Megelan-aligned cathars. The state made no effort to spread christianity, using it simply as a criteria for privileges.
Food riots coalesced into another large-scale uprising in 1789, which was resolved through more concessions and reforms.
At the time of her death in 1804, Senalta had secured a fragile peace for Xevden, much of it dependent on her personality and skillful balance of competing interests. Her successors lacked both her assertiveness and ability to walk a tightrope among factions. The nobility regained power at the expense of the monarchy. A shift towards a racist and social spencerist justification for their rule took place, pushing Xevden towards greater authoritarianism.
The Industrial Revolution reached Xevden in the 19th century, ushering in a transition towards capitalism. However, its industrialisation was deficient, and the economy was hobbled by high inequality, poverty, and pervasive corruption and administrative decay.
Gylian ascendancy
Due to Xevdenite marginalisation, Gylic and non-Gylic populations were able to undergo a national awakening. They benefited from the right to teach in their own languages, and haphazard Xevdenite resettlement attempts that had simply increased mutual interaction.
During the 19th century, the Gylian ascendancy united these strands and produced a common, flexible Gylian identity. Concentrating on strengthening the nation, Gylians established a network of organisations outside Xevdenite authority, including clandestine education, mutual organisations and cooperatives to improve their economic condition, and publishing and other cultural outlets.
Opposition to Xevden and christianity were the main unifying force of the Gylian ascendancy. One of its unexpected effects was the Gylianisation of the Ŋej. Ever since Senalta there had been a gap between ordinary and aristocratic Ŋej, which capitalism made unbridgeable. The majority of ordinary Ŋej were similarly poor and mainly interacted with Gylics, while the aristocracy isolated itself from the populace, manifesting in severe diglossia. Gylians encouraged and exploited this gap: language secessionism and Gylic relexification turned Ŋej into a Gylic language, while the elite grew isolated and were identified as "Xevdenites".
The ascendancy allowed the dissemination of radical ideas to a receptive audience. Over time, the majority of Gylians were exposed to feminism, communism, socialism, anarchism, and similar ideas, which grew in support.
A revolution in 1848 resulted in the convocation of the first Gylian national assembly. Meeting in Kaéraþ, the assembly produced a liberal and nationalist constitution, proposing a strengthened parliamentary democracy, less powers for the monarchy, decentralisation of the state, and universal citizenship and suffrage. The Kaéraþ constitution displeased the radical leftist factions, but was stalled by the Xevdenites.
Irritation with Xevdenite delays launched the Glorious Rebellion in 1856. The rebellion seized a large territory in south-western Niavelin, and implemented radical democratic reforms, following the model of the Liúşai League. Despite military successes, the rebellion failed to overthrow the state, being ultimately suppressed in 1868.
In response to the failures of 1848 and 1856-1868, two main factions emerged in the Gylian opposition. One advocated pursuing its aims through constitutional or non-violent means, rather than undertaking more fruitless uprisings. The other advocated a confrontationist approach, and hardening violent resistance. The influence of the confrontationists, insurrectionary anarchism and illegalism completed the kyðoi's evolution into modern freedom fighters.
While Xevden defeated the Glorious Rebellion in the end, its tenacity shocked the ruling class. Aware of their essentially lucky escape, the authorities took a less confrontational course and acted more carefully. The Xevdenites split between reactionaries who sought to maintain the authoritarian and unequal system, and more pragmatic traditionalists who advocated concessions to Gylians to preserve Xevden.
The pragmatists gained the upper hand after 1868. A succession of governments attempted constitutional reforms to resolve the "Gylian Question", many sabotaged by the intractable reactionaries. Unrest grew due to neglect of the economy, and Xevden was hard-hit by a depression in 1888-1889. Following hard-won electoral reforms, the 1890 election produced a hung parliament, with a narrow plurality for the ruling Party of Order.
Pragmatic leader Raţiáş Keýmer caused a split of the Party of Order and formed a coalition with liberals, Gylian nationalists, and republicans. As Prime Minister, Raţiáş pursued a reformist course and abandoned the traditional laissez-faire approach to the economy. However, the time for constitutional resolution had long passed: his reforms, while significant, proved to little for the increasingly radical Gylians, and further antagonised the reactionaries. His government fell in 1897 after losing republican support, and the reactionaries caused a constitutional crisis by attempting to form a government without parliamentary backing.
Xevdenite and Gylian liberals won their first election in 1900, led by Gezy Nemáz. Gezy's government was confronted by reactionary intransigence and obstruction. Much of its agenda was stalled, although it notably disbanded Xevden's upper house by force and used legislative violence to suppress reactionary obstruction. Panicked, the reactionaries mounted a coup in September 1902, killing the deceased king's other heirs and installing Karnaz — most sympathetic to their cause — as monarch.