Sajal War
| Sajal War | |||||||
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 A common Mutulese soldier during the Sajal War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Mutul | Template:Country data Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Itzamnaaj B’alam | Bolon Chan Witz | ||||||
The Sajal War, also known as the War of the Frightfuls or Terrifying War, was a civil war that opposed the Ilok'tab Dynasty of the Mutul and their loyalists against the Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale. It lasted from 1828 with the murder of the Divine Queen Ik'skull and the proclamation by the Sajal Holpop of the Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale.
Origins
Since the rule of Balijaj Chan K'awiil I in the early 18th century, the powers and authority of the K'uhul Ajaw kept being limited by the ever more powerful merchant-aristocracy of the Mutul. Local and national assemblies became permanent legal institutions whom obtained a de-facto say on the Divine King's politics after much political troubles. The weakening of the Mutul's position in the West after the Tsurushimese revolution of 1750 only exacerbated a conflict between a weakened monarchy and its nobility whom, inspired by both local and foreign thinkers, especially from Sante Reze developed a more liberal approach to both the economy and politics.
In 1819, the Second War for Kahei started, threatening some of the merchant-aristocracy's positions in Ochran. In 1820, Wahlam B'alam V died in K'umarkaj after a decade long semi-exile ordered by the Sajal Holpop, the Nobility's Assembly, who had taken over K'alak Muul. His young son, Wahlam B'alam VI, was brought back to the capital to be crowned and ruled as a puppet king for the Sajal Holpop. The same year, he died of illness and was succeeded by his elder sister, Lady Ik'skull. Ik'skull tried to restructure the Divine Throne bureaucracy and to limit the powers of the assemblies like the Sajal Holpop. In 1828, a conspiracy of Mutuleses aristocrats managed to murder the Divine Queen and her body was pushed from the balcony of her palace. This trigger a series of events that led to her husband fleeing the capital with their son, the future B'ailjaj Chan K'awiil II, and the Sajal Holpop proclaiming the end of the Mutul and the creation of the Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale.
Combattants
Ilok'tab Loyalists
After his escape from K'alak Muul, Itzamnaaj B'alam, king-consort of Ik'skull gained K'umarkaj, the traditional base of power of the Ilok'tab Dynasty and enthroned his son as B'ailjaj Chan K'awiil II while he himself took the position of Regent. He amassed around him an inner circle of friends, family members, and clients, and built from there his resistance to the Noble Republic. After a few months he moved his base of operation further east, as he gathered there the Divine Army, which had globally remained loyal to the Ilok'tab, alongside various loyalists militias he trained and organized into what would become the core of the Royalist army.
The leadership of the Loyalists was thus made of the Ilok'tab Dynasty and all associated lineages. K'iche and Mam people had remained heavily tied to the Ilok'tab, tjeir countries too distant from the main hub of international trades with either Ochran or Sante Reze to lose their dependence toward the central authorities. They would form the bulk of the troops and officers of the Royalists armies.
The Chibchans also became prominent in the Royalists armies. The countryside of the eastern regions was thorn appart by the heavy social changes that led to the creation of the Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale and had been especially plagued by riots or protests in support of traditional social organization and against the transition from the old Market System, directed by the State, to the more liberal system of self-governance of the Merchant-aristocracy promoted by the forces that formed the Republic. Itzamnaaj spend the early years of the war exploiting this divide between the new middle class that had appeared since the 1700s and the countryside. It's this work of "recuperation" of the Chibchans and Lencas regions, and the promises made at the time, that layed the basis for the future Itzamnaaj Reformation, post-war.
In the Xuman Peninsula and the central regions, support toward the Royalists or the Republicans changed from town to town, from family to family. Old rivalries and dynastic conflicts came to feed the civil war, from local ancestral vendettas, to mistrust toward the Tatinak and Yokot'an aristocracies who were the main backers of the Noble Republic. Ultimately, these regions would become part of the Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale, but would remain plagued by insurrections and protests the Royalists were able to turn into pro-Ilok'tab movements. The current flag of the Mutul, the Yax-Sak-Kan, was notably created as a pro-Ilok'tab flag by K'ol militias.
Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale
The Republic's power-base was made of the middle class and the merchant-aristocracy everywhere in the country. It was especially well established in the Yajawil of Kanol and the East in general, where trans-Makrian trade had led to the emergence of a wealthy "modern" society that had the time to stabilize itself as it had existed for more than 200 years by the time of the Sajal War. A similar but much younger analogue society had emerged in the East after the Sante Reze revolution of 1701 that opened the trans-Thalassian trade routes to the Mutuleses merchant-nobility. While even more radical in its support of the Noble Republic than the "West", the "East" also proved to be the weak link of the Republicans, as it's relatively recent emergence meant that it was still full of contradictions, paradoxes, and social divides on which the Royalists managed to play to gain the upper-hand.
The leadership of the Noble Republic was made entirely by the old merchant-nobility of the Mutul that had complete control over local leaderships and national financial markets. They were backed by all the smaller-scale merchants and urban middle classes that had come to depend on the Trans-Makrian and Trans-Thalassian trades for their livelihood. However, except in the west, their power quickly dwindled outside of urban centers and they had barely, if any, control over the countrysides of the north, center, and east of the countries, where local priest-bureaucrats, often nobles of their own but removed from the financial circles reserved to the high aristocracy, became a constant source of defiance and opposition to the Republic, if not outright turned to insurrections, quickly re-appropriated by the royalists.
Course of the war
Exile and constitution of the Regency
Following the Day of Balconies, as baptized by the Republicans, Itzamnaaj B'alam was able to flee K'alak Muul with his son, the future Balijaj Chan K'awiil II and a handful of supporters. On their way they stopped at Sakal Witz where they were able to gain the support of the priests of the White Mountain which allowed them to continue their journey southward to Kumakah. Itzamnaaj established his son in the Palace of Chilok'tab, a suburb of Kumakah and a site with 800 years old ties to the Ilok'tab Dynasty. It's there that he proclaimed his son the new Divine Lord and placed himself as his regent before granting himself the status of Regent.
Kumakah, and the rest of the eponymous viceroyalty, proved more than receptive and dedicated to the Royalist cause. Chief among these supporters were the House of Achi, Itzamnaaj' own clan, the religious institutions, temples and sanctuaries, of the region, as well as other leading lineages chief among them the House of Koyol one of the four great K'iche houses and strong actors of the Mutul industry. The four "House of Iximte", the Zotzil, Xahil, Tukuche, and Akajal, were less immediately agreeable to the Regent' project for a civil war but ultimately sided with him. This convinced the "House of Pokom" (Xin, Palak, Puj, Batz, and Tik) and thus the two viceroyalties immediately to the east of Kumakah tied to them, to also follow the Regent' cause although popular and aristocratic support was weaker at first. To the west, the Yajawil of Mamk'ab would proclaim itself almost immediately in support of the Divine Monarchy: the Mam people had long been ruled directly by the Ilok'tab and they've been an important pool of recruitment for soldiers and clerks.
But beyond a strong base of support, by seizing Kumakah Itzamanaaj and his partisans also seized control of its Chocolate Mills and its royal prints, granting them the ability to continue to emit their own currency, collect taxes in the Viceroyalties controlled, and emit loans and war bonds. The Regent was thus able to secure the loyalty and the discipline of the Southern Army tasked with controlling the Mountain Passes between the Mutul and Sante Reze, but also the border with Zacapican. Leaving behind only a token force, the royalists thus acquired a core professional force of around 30,000 men. This they completed by calling to arms the "Faithfuls" and forming "People Blessed Armies": militias partially supervised by officers drawn for the southern military, old veterans (recruited in priority), and other charismatic local leaders. At this stage of the war, the Royalists were able to create the Achi People' Army, the Mam People Army, three K'iche people armies, and two Pokom people armies, which represented an auxiliary force estimated between 70,000 and 300,000 men depending on historians as records and claims often contradict each others and not all commissioned officers, tasked with recruiting their own men, were willing or able to keep track of their own numbers. Nowadays, a number between 90,000 and 110,000 militias is more often used and cited.
White Mountain Campaign
The Noble Republic immediately moved to quell the royalists insurrections in northern and central Mutul. 45,000 men for example were dispatched to Sakal Witz, home to a well organized monarchist movement organized by the powerful clergy of the city. Despite efforts from Itzamnaaj B'alam to reinforce the besieged city, Republican militias and skirmishers managed to slow down his troops and they arrived too late to save it. Similar anti-royalists campaigns in the Xuman Peninsula led to ten of thousands of people being killed.
The battle of Sakal Witz was a setback for Itzamnaaj. But not to be deterred, he gave orders to his troops to wage a guerilla warfare against the Republicans in the central regions, supporting emerging royalists militias still present in the countryside and mountaineous areas. He then took the command of an army of 20,000 men and moved east, to the Lencas regions, where he established his new base of operation. From there, he favored the rise of royalists militias, turning anti-republicans sentiments into full-fledged support for the Ilok'tab Dynasty. Republicans loose complete control of the eastern regions' countryside and were pushed back to tbeir coastal bastions.
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