Hanaki War
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| Hanaki War | |||||||
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 Pulatec and Zacapine forces engaged outside Mtsanga, 1928. | |||||||
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1927:
1928–1931:
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1927: 1928–1929: | ||||||
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The Hanaki War was a continent-spanning conflict in Malaio and the Ozeros Sea. Waged between 1927 and 1931, the four-year long conflict saw the forces of a resurgent and irredentist Zanzali pitted against much of the rest of the Malaioan region. Their efforts to unite the coastline under MaZanzi rule were ultimately confounded. Though this campaign defined the length of the war, it encompassed numerous similar theaters of war across the Malaio-Ozeros region. Other nations, such as Lusoña, the Negara Meluguen regime in modern-day Pulau Keramat, and the Shenzhou Empire engaged in contemporary wars of revanchist or imperialist expansion. These wars were at first waged independently of each other, but over time they came to be fought in concert as the four powers recognized overlapping political goals for the region.
The first two years of the war were defined by a string of victorious campaigns waged by MaZanzi, Lusoñan, Meluguenan, and Shen forces. The momentum of these campaigns was sapped by the intervention of more and more outside powers, such as Alanahr, Ankat and Zacapican, as well as the overextension of the four powers' military forces. As a result, the rest of the war was spent reversing the gains of the four powers and even going on the offensive in their own territory. This trend was rapidly accelerated by the Negara Meluguen regime deserting the four powers and switching sides in XYEAR. The remaining imperial powers were hampered by conflicting ambitions and far from truly unified in their goals, which hampered cooperative efforts throughout the war. By the end of 1931, the remaining armies of Zanzali, Lusoña and the Shenzou Empire had been defeated and their governments were forced to come to the negotiating table in the city of Haqara, Fahran.
The war saw several advances in technology, including in the fields of automatic firearms and aerial attack doctrine. Politically, the war saw the end of the monarchy of Zanzali and a total rearrangement of the balance of power in the Malaio-Ozeros region. The political legitimacy of the Pulatec Union State was confirmed by the defeat of rebel forces. The war reaffirmed the Nukanoa's control of Onekawa-Nukanoa following their own devastating civil war in the years immediately before. After Zanzali's monarchy was overthrown, the nation demilitarized and was placed under a three-part multilateral protection treaty by Pulau Keramat, Onekawa-Nukanoa, and Pulacan to guarantee its sovereignty.
Prelude
Onekawa-Nukanoa Civil War
Main article: Onekawa-Nukanoa Civil War
Great Zanzali Movement
Ultranationalist, jingoistic tendencies had been amplified in Zanzali for decades prior to the Hanaki War. Propelled by the consolidation of the five MaZanzi principalities in 1889, MaZanzi nationalists began advocating for the unification of all MaZanzi people throughout the Karaihe region. This crystalized under the Great Zanzali Movement (EKU), founded by Prince Zamekile Pokwana in 1895. The Great Zanzali Movement advocated a nationalist view of Malaioan history that drew from the MaZanzi ethnic group's blended roots, being created from a fusion of Southern Komontu and Tuganani tribes and influenced by countless other regional groups. Pokwana maintained that most of the communities whose ancestors had partially formed the MaZanzi were, in fact, modern MaZanzi themselves, and thus should be brought under the rule of the Uxuvandate of Zanzali. In particular, the EKU focused on Ngāti Waimoto in Onekawa-Nukanoa to Zanzali's east and the Javinassi States to its northwest, as these border regions had both significant Tuganani populations and large communities of self-identified MaZanzi.
This ideology began to turn into physical action after the death of King Elikhulu Ukhozi in 1915. Elikhulu was succeeded by his nephew, Jama. Seeking to affirm his legitimacy, following Elikhulu's legacy as the founding father that unified Zanzali and brought it into the modern age, Jama sought the advice and approval of the prominent military officials and aristocratic bureaucrats who had played a large role in his uncle's political successes. These advisors in turn led him to Pokwana. Documents and personal correspondence that were declassified and released in 1987 revealed that Jama's attraction to the EKU was both ideological and practical: he seemed to personally believe in the EKU's project and felt it was his duty as the sovereign as the MaZanzi, but his advisors also claimed that Jama's rule came during a historical turning point for the lower Ozeros region, in which surrounding regions seemed to be accelerating in their economic and population growth more rapidly than Zanzali, and that preemptively annexing territory would both stymie rivals' growth and put Zanzali in a better long-term position.
Beginning in 1918, the MaZanzi government launched several operations in bordering states to promote the idea of Great Zanzali, publicly encouraging plebiscites and friendly relations with neighbors while simultaneously supplying prospective rebel groups and engaging in extensive espionage to sabotage rival states' power in contested regions. These operations gradually increased in size and scope over the next decade, until the Pūmāhumākū Incident in the March of 1927 gave Zanzali an opportunity to begin annexing territory by force.
Outbreak of war
Open hostilities on the MaZanzi front first broke out in April of 1927. Prior to this point, the MaZanzi government had been engaging in a campaign of subterfuge in western Onekawa. Agents from Zanzali were involved both in arming sympathetic Komontu populations with arms and in inciting Onekawan locals into ethnic violence against the Komontu. MaZanzi military units were even involved in false flag attacks on Komontu groups. The aim of the MaZanzi government was to create a credible narrative that the weakened post-civil-war Nukanoa government was incapable of protecting minority groups in the region. During one such incident, the Pūmāhumākū Incident of March 25th, 1927, one such false flag attack was repulsed by the chance intervention of a nearby Onekawan military unit. Following this, the Onekawa-Nukanor government issued an ultimatum to Zanzali, demanding the cessation of all subterfuge and espionage activities in the region. The government of Zanzali responded with a counter-ultimatum that either a plebiscite on the region’s entry into Zanzali be held or that Zanzali’s military would enter the region to enforce the security of minority groups. International intervention, including the Parrada Diplomatic Mission, failed to resolve the crisis. On April 14th, with no answer being provided to either ultimatum by either nation, the MaZanzi military crossed the Hanaki River in force and began a full-scale invasion of Onekawa-Nukanoa.
Course of the war
Lusoña
Onekawa-Nukanoa
Pulacan
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The war began in Pulacan through another campaign of subterfuge and espionage. The Union State was still relatively new, and as a consequence was politically fragile. Numerous elements, including the tribes that saw themselves as losing the previous generation’s Brothers’ War, were still fundamentally opposed to a unified Pulatec state. The Pulatec general election of 1926 was similarly divisive, with staunch radical Republican Dumelang Tsogwane and his cohorts receiving limited power in government thanks to a divided opposition and spoiler candidates. The Tsogwane government was subsequently viewed as weak and ineffective. MaZanzi agents were involved in agitating disgruntled tribal dikgosi as early as 1925, but the program intensified following the inauguration. By early 1927, MaZanzi agents were actively promoting open rebellion from within. Seretse IV, the influential kgosi of the Tshekedi nation, was the first and primary chief to revolt against the government; the opening salvo of the rebellion was the raid and seizure of a military munitions convoy in the remote Djebe highlands at Motopi on February 2nd, 1927.
Contrary to MaZanzi expectations, the rebellion quickly foundered. Despite having the advantage of guerrilla tactics on their side, the rebels found it difficult to recruit supporters from war-weary tribes. Many, even if they held great disdain for the central government, did not wish to risk the compromise position they held, so soon after a devastating conflict well within living memory. As such, manpower and civilian support proved to be chronic issues. Attempts to engage the Pulatec Security Forces in open combat, too, proved ineffective. Pulatec experiments in combined arms and close air support were tested on the irregular rebel forces to marked success. By August, the rebellion was all but extinguished. Despite this, many in MaZanzi military high command felt obligated to increase support for the rebels. Public opinion in Zanzali was largely sympathetic to the rebels, thanks to government depictions of a “kindred struggle” against non-Komontu oppressors. After intense debate, an MaZanzi expeditionary force crossed the border on September 12th, 1927, and laid siege to the fortifications protecting the major city of Mtsanga. This action caught the unprepared local forces by surprise, and the defenders were routed. It was hoped that the bulk of Pulatec manpower would be too heavily committed toward combating the rebellion to allow for a proper defense to be mounted, and that the coastal areas of northern Pulacan would easily fall away. Pulatec commanders, aware but not prepared for the threat of invasion, opted to engage in mobile defense, refusing to commit to full battles while slowing the MaZanzi advance and allowing for sufficient reinforcements to be mobilized and redirected to the front. Despite this strategy, the coast fell to MaZanzi troops by December, 1928. Remaining Pulatec forces in the area either retreated or melted into the wilderness as guerrilla fighters against the occupation.
The Pulatec Navy was largely concentrated in the north of the country, and with the fall of its support bases to the MaZanzi imminent, it was decided that the fleet had to evacuate to avoid capture. After onboarding injured personnel and local authorities at Mabesekwa Naval Base on July 17th, 1928, the Ozeros Sea Flotilla departed under cover of darkness. Equipped with a dreadnought battleship as the flotilla's core, the group was theoretically capable of combatting enemy naval forces; as its route to evacuate crossed the waters prowled by both the Pulaui and MaZanzi naval forces, however, it was decided that the risk of engagement was too high and to avoid confrontation at all costs. On October X, off the coast of Y, [INSERT NAVAL BATTLE HERE]. Despite incurring losses, the battered Pulatec navy was able to escape the engagement and limp to safety at the northern Onekawan island of Motonui. This evacuation, known as the Flight of the Fleet, allowed for the bulk of Pulacan's naval power to survive the early invasion and prove useful by the end of the war.
On land, plans to reconquer the northern coast were being put into place almost as soon as they fell to Zanzali. Remaining Pulatec troops were able to solidify a defensive line at the northern edge of the Djebe Highlands, and dug in, awaiting reinforcements. The United Zacapine Republics, already providing military modernization aid to Pulacan, began rapidly intensifying its material support in 1928. Imports of arms and ammunition were increased well beyond capacity, leaving key aspects of the Pulatec military logistics network open to sabotage. The most significant act of sabotage was the Tliltapoyec Explosion, which occurred in March 1928 after two MaZanzi spies of the vulnerable central munitions nexus. Rebuilding from the disaster (one of the largest artificial explosions in history) and improving the safe storage of explosives slowed the upgrading of other aspects of the military logistics network, such as rail transport. As such, when the time came for a counterattack, Pulatec commander P.P. Molebatsi was extremely reluctant to launch, for fear of overextending weak supply lines. Nevertheless, the Pulatec Union Security Forces possessed two distinct advantages that would define the latter stage of the war. First, the Pulatec Air Corps, under the training of General Nequametl Tziuhcoatl of the Zacapine Army Air Corps and aided by a contingent of "volunteer instructors," would prove crucial in providing air cover and combined-arms power for infantry advances. Second, the Tq-21 self-loading rifle, the first such weapon to be issued en masse on the Malaioan continent, was starting to be distributed to the Security Forces as a standard-issue infantry rifle. Its reliable firing mechanism and higher potential firing rate greatly increased the firepower of Pulatec troops.
Kayatman Theater
The Kayatman archipelago would become engulfed with two major conflicts as part of the Hanaki War. The first being far-right nationalist elements within Pulau Keramat who sought to restore the ancient Tahamajan Empire to its previous glory by incorporating Kajera, but also due to hostile action by the Shenzhou Empire from the Ochran mainland that sought to absorb Daobac as part of its domain. As the successors of the Huang Dynasty, the Ma dynasty rulers of Shenzhou primarily driven by their desire for revenge against the Daoans and Tsurushimans, who had defeated the Shen in the First Cross-Strait War and imposed a humiliating peace treaty. To accomplish the Shen realized the value of discretion, taking great care to avoid overt action.
To maintain this facade of a friendly and stable state, the Shenzou Empire signed a new non-aggression pact with Daobac in the hopes of leading the Daoans into a false sense of security. When Kajera was attacked by Pulau Keramat in 192X, Daobac focused much of its attention to its southern maritime borders. The Daoans believed that the Shenzhou Empire's new friendly posture towards its neighbors, the recently signed NAP and the establishment of the demilitarized zone in the empire's southern coast led to the Daoan government to believe that they were able to divert some of its military resources to the south to support the Kajerans in their war efforts against the Pulaui. The Shenzhou Empire, biding its time by letting sufficient military resources from Daobac to be diverted to the south, finally launched a surprise attack against the Daoans in 1928.
Foreign support
Zacapican
The relatively young republics of Zacapican and Pulacan had been established some decades earlier as part of the same conflict, the revolutionary downfall of Aztapamatlan. The new regime in the old Aztapaman homeland, eventually headed by Xolotecatl Acuixoc following a protracted power struggle, was bound by treaty to observe the independence and uphold the integrity of the Pulatec state that had been carved out from the former Aztapaman Malaio territories. The two countries therefore had a complicated relationship at the time of the onset of the Hanaki War, with Zacapican playing both the role of the former colonial overlord and of revolutionary sister republic. There were many in the newborn United Zacapine Republics, then well underway on its aggressive program of industrialization, who viewed Pulacan as a part of a shared cultural patrimony and in particular supported the cause of the embattled Union State against rebel Komontu populations. As early as March 1927, Tepachoani Acuixoc began to authorize members of the local Republican Guards as well as Army reservists to take leave in order to travel to Pulacan and join the fight as volunteers. Because Pulacan was not officially at war with another recognized state, Zacapican was legally able to sell weapons, munitions and other material to Pulacan to aid in their efforts against the rebellion. The Zacapines began to equip the Pulatec air wings with Aztatl M1921 and Azcalatl biplanes during the Spring and Summer of that year, during which time the newly established YAT 7 design bureau had begun to develop a new military aircraft designated Centematlapalli. This was done by order of the Tepachoani, who had begun to plan the creation of an expeditionary air detachment that could be sent to the battlefields of Pulacan to gain valuable experience in combat and test the capabilities Zacapine aircraft designs, much as the United Republics had done with its small expedition to the Onekawan Civil War only a few years prior.
Xolotecatl Acuixoc fully intended to bring the United Zacapine Republics into the Hanaki War from the onset. This was part of a long standing project of the young Zacapine regime to reclaim some of the international standing that had been lost with the downfall of Aztapamatlan, primarily by reestablishing a level of Zacapine influence on the Malaioan continent through military intervention in the many conflicts of what had become a volatile and unstable region of the world. However, Zanzali was ideologically opposed to Zacapine involvement on the continent and the newly affirmed Onekawan Nukanoa dynasty had fought against the Zacapine expedition in the Onekawan Civil War which had soured relations. Although Pulacan was fully willing to accept Zacapine material assistance and volunteers once the rebellion in the Djebe highlands broke out, Pulatec leader Dumelang Tsogwane was apprehensive over the potential for greater Zacapine involvement in the war. Tsogwane feared that openly aligning with the Xolotecate regime would only serve to provoke anti-colonialist fears among the population which would erode whatever popular support the Union State had among the Komontu population. He was also hesitant to be seen associating with Xolotecatl Acuixoc personally due to the authoritarian reputation of the Zacapine Tepachoani. This would change virtually overnight following the invasion of MaZanzi troops into northern Pulacan.
Zacapican declared war on the Kingdom of Zanzali the day after the MaZanzi invasion. The country had already been in a state of partial mobilization for many years as a result of the Countryside War, a low level insurgency that had been simmering in rural Zacapican since the end of the Zacapine Revolution, which would provide all of the necessary manpower for the Zacapine war effort. Through the course of the MaZanzi-Zacapine War, no additional mobilization of manpower for the military would be implemented. Zacapican would, however, begin its transition to a wartime economy almost immediately. Although Zacapican would deploy several naval squadrons, air wings and detachments of ground troops to the east during the war, by far the country's most important contribution was industrial in nature. The Xolotecate industrialization program which had already been in full swing exploded with the implementation of the war economy, opening hundreds of new factories and industrial towns across the country which would begin producing massive quantities of weapons, munitions and other war material destined for Malaio. Over the course of the war, Zacapican would produce and ship more than 250 million artillery shells to feed the insatiable demands of Pulatec-Zacapine batteries on the front lines.