Pulatec volunteers in the Third Uhlangan Civil War

Numerous Pulatec citizens fought as volunteers in the 1967-1971 Iqozi-Cuhonhico War, also known as the Third Uhlangan Civil War. For various reasons, fighters were drawn to join both sides. As the state of Pulacan bordered the conflict zone, Pulatec volunteers made up some of the largest foreign volunteers by nationality in both Iqozi and Cuhonhicah service. The war was an unpopular one in Pulacan, and imposed numerous issues onto the country through disrupted trade, wayward munitions and a massive influx of refugees avoiding conflict. As a result, many Pulatec volunteer fighters were treated with scorn upon their return to Pulacan, especially those that had fought for the defunct Cuhonhico.

Background

For much of the 20th century, the area now comprising the modern state of Phansi Uhlanga was made of two states: the Coyotec-minority-ruled Cuhonhico, and the Komontu-dominated Democratic People's Republic of Iqozi. Cuhonhico, along with most of modern-day Pulacan, made up the Malaioan possessions of the predominantly-Nahua Heron Empire up until the 19th century. Though all the territories were nominally under the suzerainty of the subnational monarchy in Ytzac Tlalocan descended from Itzcoatl, in reality their authority was meaningless. Modern-day Pulacan was administered by a governor (Nahuatl: tlatoani) sent by Angatahuaca, and Cuhonhico fell outside of his sphere of control: it was effectively self-governed by an entrenched planter elite almost entirely comprised of Nahua settlers. Due to their distance from the colonial administration, resultant self-reliance and extensive use of slave labor on their plantations, a paternalistic and racist cultural mindset developed among the Cuhonhicah elite. Furthermore, the brutal mistreatment inherent to chattel slavery antagonized the local Komontu populations, leading to frequent raids and attacks on plantations and other Cuhonhicah infrastructure. Thus, when revolution broke out in Pulacan in the late 19th century, Cuhonhico did not similarly break out in widespread civil violence. It was the belief of many of the Cuhonhicah elite that they represented an outpost of Oxidentalese civilization, and that the breakdown of colonial ethnic barriers and subsequent intermixing that had become commonplace in Pulacan was anathema to their civilizing mission. Thus, with the conclusion of the Brothers' War at the turn of the 20th century, there were frequent border skirmishes between Cuhonhicah and Pulatec forces until the fall of Aztapamatlan itself in 1904 to a republican revolution signaled the definitive end of the Heron Empire.

Thus, even after its fall, the Cuhonhicah elite continued to identify themselves with the imperialism of the Heron Empire, and even their increasing Coyotec population self-identified solely with Nahua culture in sharp contrast to both the neighboring Iqozi rejection of Oxidentalese culture and Pulacan's growing embrace of a post-colonial cultural fusion.

Pulatec volunteers in Cuhonhico

Pulatec volunteers signed up with the Cuhonhicah armed forces for numerous reasons.

Pulatec volunteers in Democratic Iqozi

Much like its counterpart, the people that chose to fight with Democratic Iqozi chose to do so for several reasons.