User:TJY1998/Ruttish Gaullicanism
 | This article is incomplete because it is pending further input from participants, or it is a work-in-progress by one author. Please comment on this article's talk page to share your input, comments and questions. Note: To contribute to this article, you may need to seek help from the author(s) of this page. |
Ruttish Gaullicanism is the pseudoarchaeological and pseudoanthropological belief that the people of Ruttland are descendants of a "lost group" of ethnic Gaullicans who travelled to northern Euclea following the fall of the Solarian Empire. The origins of the theory are unknown, but by the late 14th century it had been discussed in several period writings including accounts from Ponte Pilote. By the end of the 19th century, the belief had been so ingrained in elements of Ruttish and Gaullican society that organisations were set up in the Empire that advocated for Ruttish independence and further relations based on these links. Some of these organisations have continued to exist in the 21st century.
Modern archaeological evidence, genetic and ethnological research have refuted the main arguments of the Ruttish Gaullicanism theory.
History
Earliest records
In Euclea's Northern Reaches which was written after arriving in Lipliškės in 1331, Ponte Pilote described the people as having "Solarian character and the spirit of the south". He would go on to write that "in my heart, the hospitality in which I have been received is indicative of a Solarian-Gaullican character, of deep religious faith and charity. And of keen architecture and literature. I would not be amiss to say, I believe, that these people are our brothers." Ponte spent the better part of six months in the Ruttish capital, visting not just the nobility but people of all works of life.
When Pilote returned to the Verliquoian Empire after almost a decade of travelling, he made these opinions and experiences on Ruttish culture known to imperial society and spurred an interest in uncovering more of these potential, if fabricated, links. Whilst an existing embassy would deal with the Rudolphine Confederation, the imperial bureaucracy in Verlois dictated that an embassy should be sent directly to Ruttland -- the first of which were exchanged in 1342. Part of the Ruttish delegation to Verlois included Princess Viktorija of Ruttland, who would go on to be wedded to Emperor Charles VIII. Their union was a highly publicised affair, and was decried by some period writers as a 'people's union' on the ideas put forward by Pilote. The imperial household made no such claims, and Princess Victoria actively stressed that her people were their own.
Aymeric Morel's 1501 gargantuan account of an attempt to catalogue the lives of the people of the Gaullican Empire, The Empire and its People made reference to numerous ethnic groups within the borders of the nation. It included, however, an attempt to historically identified the different sorts of peoples that had lived in the empire's borders at one time. In a section dedicated to 'lost Solaro-Gaullicans', it described the Suhalans of modern-day Tsabara and the Ruttish as being of this group.
Elements of the theory could also be found in the works of Jacques Prévost. Exodus in the Dark: The Trials and Tribulations of the Peoples of Liplichqués[2], a collection of short stories following a group of Solarians who leave their home during the crises of the fifth century and settle in modern day Ruttland, would extensively popularise and entrench the mythology of these ideas. Famously, the concluding lines from Prévost's omniscient narrator concludes: "The people who would come to be known as Gaullicans were split, but for how long?"
Foundation
In 1641 the Ruttish-born Bishop of Dinesie, Étienne du Ségrie was appointed as the head of Francois II's government. Before being appointed Bishop of Dinesie, he had been a staunch advocate for the Telois claim to the throne of Miersa. During the Miersan War of Succession he had served as the Secretary of State for War, organising the logistics of the Gaullican armies in successfully occupying the eastern portions of Miersa.
As the head of government, he oversaw a revolution of Gaullican foreign policy. Historically, the empire had kept a network of alliances throughout Euclea in the aim of preventing the consolidation of local powers that could, one day, eventually pose a threat to Gaullica's continental and later imperial ambitions. Many of these alterations to Gaullican foreign policy attempted to consolidate these friendly, smaller polities into functioning regional allies. At its core, the aim was the independence of Ruttland that would be a check in the ambitions of Cislania, Estmere and Kirenia.
By 1659, Étienne had been replaced as the head of this government and returned to a fully clerical duty at Dinesie. He would go on to publish numerous treatises that have been put forward as the original documents codifying the beliefs of the Ruttish Gaullicanism movement. Between 1659 and his death in 1681, du Ségrie had written two political pieces, a genealogical account and countless short works outlining his beliefs. They discussed the supposed genealogical evidence for the 'common origin' of the Gaullican and Ruttish peoples, as well as a lexicon of words in Ruttish that could be traced to this origin point. Cultural customs, similar ideals, a similar dedication to their faith and even attributes were cited as evidence.
His theory was popular amongst fringe elements of the elites in Gaullica, though it grew in popularity over the course of the remainder of the 17th century. By 1701 there were records of it having gained a foothold amongst some aspects of Ruttish society as well.
The first society that can be described as Ruttish-Gaullicanist was the 'Brotherhood of the Exodus', a gentleman's club turned society in Verlois founded in the aftermath of the Ten Years' War by Ruttish noblemen and aristocrats who found themselves exiled from their home due to disagreeing with either candidate for succession. The most notable of these noblemen was Georges Mathias; the club's proprietor, who had arrived in Verlois in 1711. Mathias formulated the basic tenets of the Ruttish Gaullican theory by compiling the arguments put forward by those before him into a single work that became a staple at the Brotherhood.
Mathias would go on to organise monthly readings on literature that supported this ideal and found himself in support of the movement, translating its works into his native Ruttish and produced at a printers' owned by his neighbour. These works allowed for the creation of a sister 'Brotherhood of the Exodus' chapter to be founded in Lipliškės by 1721.
Contemporary Ruttish Gaullicanists cite historic records from the time of the early Verliquoian Empire, which make vague references to 'great migrations of people' as proof of the possibility of an exodus of Gaullo-Solarians.
Adherence in Aucuria
Ruttish Gaullicanism began appearing in Aucuria during the mid-18th century. The shift from the United Kingdom of Ruttland and Aucuria to Rudolphine rule emerging from the Ten Years' War saw Aucuria demoted from a coequal, autonomous part of a pluricontinental monarchy to the personal colonial property of the Rudolphine Protector, a change which provoked widespread opposition in Aucuria; accordingly, Ruttish Gaullicanism gained some traction as a means of expressing hostility to Rudolphine rule during this period. However, it remained largely confined to the fringes in the face of competing visions of Aucurian identity, including visions more explicitly harkening back to the memory of Ruttland-Aucuria and visions of Aucuria as an Asterian nation descended but distinct from Euclea, and Enlightenment ideals, which conflicted with the Ruttish Gaullicanist conception of the "Solaro-Gaullican" peoples as being bound to the virtues of "God, King, and Order".
The theory's presence in Aucuria persisted after the Aucurian War of Independence and the establishment of the Aucurian Republic, but it remained largely confined to fringe conservative and reactionary circles. As the 19th century progressed, it also faced increasing opposition due to the practical tensions between Aucuria and the neighboring Gaullican dominion of Satucin over their border and navigation rights along the Juoda and Sythe rivers; then-Chancellor Aleksandras Vilkauskas famously quipped in 1870 that "the Gaullicans sneer at us just as much as the Weranians, no matter all the talk about our supposed Solarian brothers". The concept's appeal in Aucuria was further dented by the outcome of the War of the Arucian, which saw Aucuria lose the islands of Saint Casimir and Saint Catherine to Gaullican rule, and by its association with several leaders of the losing side of the subsequent Aucurian Civil War.
As the 19th century progressed into the 20th, however, mainstream Aucurian conceptions of national identity shifted further away from the Eucleocentric tenets of Ruttish Gaullicanism. During the 1800s, adherents of the theory within both Aucuria and Satucin had sought to justify the material tensions between the two by arguing that the other was a "mongrel nation" whose ethnic admixture with indigenous Asterians had resulted in a loss of "Solaro-Gaullican spirit"; however, particularly following the turmoil of War of the Arucian and the Aucurian Civil War, Aucuria increasingly embraced the idea of Aucurian nationality as a Eucleo-Asterian synthesis, with a focus upon combining the legacies of Ruttland-Aucuria, the Aucurian Revolution, and Cutinsua. This conception, which challenged both the Ruttish-centric conception that had previously dominated Aucurian conceptions of national identity and Ruttish Gaullicanism, was advanced in various forms by cultural and political movements such as paprotizmas, vietinizmas, and maišytacija.
Ruttish Gaullicanism made its final serious revival during the Great War, when it was officially adopted as an ideological tenet by the collaborationist Second Aucurian State; the concept was regularly invoked in propaganda, which emphasized the idea of Aucuria "returning home" to its Solarian roots by aligning itself with Gaullica - and the collaborationist Liplisqués Government in Ruttland - to try and garner public support. After the victory of the Grand Alliance (including the National Redoubt Government of Feliksas Lupeikis) over the Entente, this meant that Ruttish Gaullicanism was irrevocably tainted in Aucuria by its association with collaborationism and functionalism, and the theory died out in Aucuria shortly thereafter, remaining marginalized even during the country's 1949-1980 military dictatorship.
Adherence in Gaullica
Though a theory started by a Ruttish nobleman, the Ruttish-Gaullican belief has been widely shaped and moulded by Gaullican thought and Gaullican thinkers. It was in Gaullica where the Brotherhood of the Exodus was first founded, and were it attracted a large portion of its early membership base. Though it initially began as a small club of likeminded thinkers, its popularity experienced a meteoric rise following a visit to the Brotherhood by Louis V.
Louis V had visited to gauge the feasibility of sponsoring claims to Ruttish independence, even though his country was allied to Kirenia at the time, over the basis of potentially further destabilising the situation in northern Euclea for Gaullican interests. It is also speculated that Louis travelled to seek out Mathias' services as a vampire hunter, given the Emperor was deeply concerned of the supernatural after becoming enamoured by Euclean folk mythologies. Regardless of intent, it was clear that there were interests other than any genuine belief in the links between both countries.
Following Louis' visit, the theory gained a newfound credence as it became a popular topic within the Gaullican nobility. By 1726 a lobbying 'club' of members of the senate who held the views expressed in Mathias' work was formed to push interests of Ruttish independence, whilst through Kirenia Gaullica aimed to secure elements of Ruttish identity and guarantees on the respect of the peoples' culture.
It maintained a low-profile after that, often being considered to be relatively fringe in imperial interests until the Congress of Torazza in 1856. The attempts of the Weranic government to culturally assimilate the Ruttish people through policies pushed by reichsstatthalter Hans Wilhelm von Weikersthal infuriated the Gaullican senate. Barthélémy Vidmantas, a senator and a descendent of Ruttish nobility who had settled in Gaullica, declared:
"We lost the war not on a failure of our own part, but because our allies were overwhelmed. This does not mean that we let our people, wherever they may be, suffer at the demands of another empire -- on sovereigns they did not want. For too long have our brothers, Gaullicans like we, been oppressed -- first from Rudolphine Masters, then from Kirenian, and now from tyrants in Westbrucken. On what right do Weranics have to try to eradicate a culture greater than their own?""
Vidmantas' views were inflamed by the deteriorating situation in Ruttland and his skills as an orator only improved with time. He would occasionally interrupt meetings of the senate to sing the words (in Gaullican) of a Ruttish anthem he had invented, often to cheers of those who supported him, and once questioned "when will the army do to Westbrucken what they are doing to Liplichqués?" It is known that he once paraded into the senate hoisting the traditional coat of arms of Ruttland, which had been made for him by his sister.
By this point, the public had become somewhat familiar with the theory following substantial newspaper exposure of Vidmantas, originally publicised as a 'cantankerous old fool' quickly fell into public favour. By 1860 Vidmantas' name was a well known one across Gaullica who had affectionally began to refer to him as "The Lion of Liplichqués".
As the situation worsened in Ruttland and banditry began to rise as the local economy disintegrated as the agrarian economy could not cope with Weranian free trade, members of the public began to clamour for a change in the official response of the empire. By June of 1860 a successful demonstration had courted the support of many senators, and the ruling regency, to provide a charitable relief in the form of foodstuffs to the Ruttish population.
The elements of Ruttish-Gaullicanism had grown out of control on the onset of Jurgaitytė rebellion, as genuine feelings of sympathy for the Ruttish people collided with beliefs of revanchism against Werania, fuelled by the popular persona of Vidmantas almost tipped Gaullica into declaring war on Werania during the course of the rebellion. Vidmantas took the opportunity to call a vote of no confidence on Premier Arceneaux, though the motion was narrowly defeated following a threat from intervention from the regency council. Insulted, Vidmantas left the senate to join Nida's rebellion with the words: "When the halls of power fail, men become desperate."
The Gaullican press vigorously reported on Nida's rebellion and often erroneously attributed acts of barbarism and inhumanity to the Weranian armies. A story popular at the time fabricated that the Weranian army had run out of ammo when trying to put down the rebellion and had resorted to firing the body parts of infants at the revolting peasants. To further capitalise on the popularity of her movement, Nida was paralleled to Saint Chloé - a noblewoman forced into a desperate situation for 'the good of the world'.
When the rebellion failed, Premier Arceneaux anticipated the depression in public opinion and instituted three days of public mourning on the news that Jida herself had been killed. Vidmantas returned to the senate a hero, and used his popularity to become premier for a year before retiring to ill health from a wound received during the fighting.
Following the end of the War of the Arucian in 1884, Gaullica acquired the islands of Saint Casimir and Saint Catherine from Aucuria. Admiral André-Alexander-Alphonse d'Assonaire was assigned as the joint colonial governor of both islands. It was recorded in the journals of both himself and his senior aide, Jacob Barrande, that the Admiral was completely dumbstruck at the actual inhabitants of the islands. According to Barrande, Alphonse is said to have told him in private: "Why do [the islanders] not speak Gaullican? Are they not descendants of the people of Ruttland?".
The theory held widespread publication and thought throughout the remainder of l’âge des gens heureux. It became integrated on the empire's views on race and civic nationalism in some circles and it grew increasingly popular in Ruttish-speaking portions of the world; particularly in Ruttland itself as it was viewed either as a machine to achieve independence from Werania with; or, contentiously, as a genuine belief of shared genealogy.
Members of the Parti Populaire and the Functionalist movement within Gaullica had a strong belief in the theory, whilst others played on it for geopolitical and geostrategic purposes. Abélard Cochet, who served as Minister of the Interior under Rafael Duclerque, was integral in lobbying of support of the establishment of a functionalist Ruttish state in the territories occupied from Werania during the Great War.
Following the end of the Great War, many elements of the intelligentsia of Gaullica's society were discredited and fell out of use. Many things pertaining to the empire that was collectivised into a "defunctionalisation" of the nation alongside its emerging concepts of "forced democratisation" saw 'fringe theories of unsubstantiated science removed'. Whilst no figure in the fledgling Gaullican Republic outwardly supported the elements and tenets of Ruttish-Gaullicanism, it was still held as correct by segments of society. However, since the fall of the Parti Populaire, no single individual movement has risen to maintain or politically push for a Ruttish-Gaullican ideal. Its popularity has waned over the decades, yet some remaining 'Brotherhood of the Exodus' clubs still exist in Gaullica, though from their height of hundreds of societies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, only three remain active in Gaullica today.
Adherence in Ruttland
.jpg)
Ruttish Gaullicanism was a fringe concept in Ruttland itself up until the aftermath of the Jurgaitytė rebellion in 1861. The failure of Ruttish Gaullicanism to become a more prominent cultural movement in Ruttland prior to this date has been attributed to the lack of a unified Ruttish identity prior to Weranian Unification, the multi-ethnic makeup of Ruttland and the previous Weranophilia of the intellectual class.
Prior to the Jurgaitytė rebellion Ruttish identity tended to be tied to the ideal of the former United Kingdom and therefore tended to emphasise the cosmopolitan nature of Ruttland with the Ruttish language co-existing alongside Weranian. Ruttish Gaullicanism first entered the intellectual sphere during the Weranian Republican period when the Catholic Bishop of Lipliškės Džiugas Juronis published Essays of the Revolution in Weranland that strongly condemned the Weranian Revolution. Speaking of Ruttland Juronis stated the people of the former United Kingdom subscribe not to the inhuman rationalism of the Weranic mind, but rather to the principles of God, King and Order found amongst our Solarian brothers in Gaullica". Juronis would be notable amongst Ruttish nationalists in having disdain for independent Aucuria stating "the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of the People, of Klimantis and Kairys is nothing more then the poison of Xaver Dobrizhoffer and Hötzendorf across the water".
Under Juronis's direction the Ruttish clergy thanks to their instinctive Gallophilia would become strongly supportive of Ruttish Gaullicanism emphasising religious links. They were however out of step with the nascent Ruttish nationalist movement that tended to look to Aucuria and envision the creation of a multi-ethnic republic modelled off the cosmopolitan pluricontinentalism of the United Kingdom.
Contemporary Movement
Relationship to Ruttish identity and nationalism
Tenets
Ruttland was founded by Solaro-Gaullicans
Adherents of the theory believe that following the crises in the Solarian Empire during the early 5th century, before a consolidation of power was evident and successful in the province of Gallia, inhabitants of the province underwent an exodus to flee from invaders, destabilisation and war. They argue that these groups "likely numbered in the thousands" and "those who survived arrived to found the city of Lipliškės". The theory stipulates that the founders of Ruttland created it on their Solarian ideals, were the first missionaries to northern Euclea, and provided a bastion of Sotirianity that would survive well into 're-contact' with the rest of southern Euclea. They also argue that the Solaro-Gaullicans likely intermixed with the native peoples but passed on their cultural legacy to their descendants.
Many contemporary theorists, such as historian and anthropologist Edmond Fabien, were adamant that an archaeological discovery of Solarian coinage, weapons and pottery within Lipliškės at a dig site in 1981 was proof "of the settlement and foundation of the nation of Ruttland by Solaro-Gaullicans", though many critics argue that the presence of those items only confirms that trade-links existed between native people and the Solarian Empire.
The theory holds that the earliest Ruttish dynasties were in fact Solarian and that this explains a "strong cultural link between later Ruttland and the Empire", as well as "progression in art and culture, as well as a strong Catholic faith in an otherwise pagan region".
Ruttish people are a 'Solarian People'
Building off of the commentary of Ponte Pilote's description of Ruttland, theorists have maintained that there are three categories of proof that Ruttish people are Solarian in origin. Étienne du Ségrie compiled them into an argument in his Persons of Solaria, taking great inspiration and information from Aymeric Morel's The Empire and its People.
He outlined that there were three 'definitive proofs' of the 'Solarianness' of Ruttland and he identified these as 'cultural', 'linguistic' and 'value-based'. Du Ségrie argued that with the information outlined by Ponte Pilote, through the descriptions of the structure of Lipliškės, that it was designed in such a way that 'evoked Solarian design'.
A Gaullican-Ruttland single state is an ideal to achieve
Mathias compiled his evidences during the 1710s but he also added to the theory. Rather than basing his ideas solely on the works of Pilote, du Ségrie, Morel and Prévost, Mathias added beliefs and ideas that were moulded and influenced by his time. Having just left the brutal Ten Years War, Ruttland had been transferred from the Rudolphine Confederation to Kirenia's possession. Many Ruttish noblemen were dissatisfied with this outcome, but many had come to dislike Rudolphine association as well. Mathias built on these sympathies and argued that Ruttland's destiny was not with either state and remarked, "if we can not be an independent Ruttland let us turn to our ancestors in the south, and let us join together as one".
The arguments put forward by the successive members of the brotherhood indicated that a single Gaullican-Ruttish polity was preferable to one in which Ruttland was part of Kirenia or the Rudolphine Confederation was a matter of Ruttland not 'being of either group'.
Ruttish culture is targeted by non-Gaullicans out of jealousy
A central belief of those who subscribe to the theory of Ruttish-Gaullicanism is that 'Gaullican' culture is something to be emulated; and is the purest form of 'Solarian' culture that continues to exist. Ruttish culture, which is therefore a Gaullican culture (or, some theorists maintain, Gaullican culture itself), is an idealised form of living. It is because of this 'elevated' status amongst the cultures of the world in art, science and linguistics, that Ruttland has been targeted so 'viciously' by its neighbours.