Armed forces of Camia

The armed forces of Camia, defined by the Defence Act, 1922 (subsequent additions inclus.) consist of the three services, Camian Army, Camian Navy, and the Camian Air Force, and three military organizations Camian Home Guard, Camian Marine Corps, and Camian Coast Guard. Within each category, elements are listed in order of founding date.

Leadership

The Camian consitution names the President "Captain-General of all armed forces", where the contents of "armed forces" are given by the Defence Act. The word "Captain-General", dating to the Ackerian Constitution (1823) and the mid-1700s in news literature, has been replaced in Tyrannian literature by Commander-in-chief in most contexts and is assumed to be synonymous to it. The practice of defining the head-of-state explicitly as commander-in-chief was first found in the Ackerian Constitution. Earlier sources, by both Themiclesian and Tyrannian authors, have assumed the Themiclesian axiom of the head of government's supremacy over the armed forces, though control of their nominal bureaucratic superiors. However, in practice, the presidents of the Second Republic rarely exercised direct control over the forces in the earlier period, usually leaving both administrative affairs and command to the secretaries of state. In war, the president delegated commander-in-chief-like powers to military officers in situ. By the mid-1800s, when the recalcitrance of the Camian Army became apparent, presidents increasingly took to making personal decisions to prevent the accumulation of power (whether actual or perceptual) in the Camian Army. With the restoration of the Republic in 1915, the Camian president has been vested with strong powers over the armed forces, with some decisions legally reserved to the president, i.e. cannot be delegated.

Branches

Camian Army

The Camian Army was originally founded as the Colonial Army under the Themiclesian Appropriations Ministry in 1392, as the country's first professionalized army. As its name suggests, it was both meant to defend colonies and to settle them, with veterans. Soon after founding, the army was split into two branches, one in Meridia, and the other in Columbia. The Columbian branch was further split in the 15th c. into a southern division and a northern division. Parts of the northern division eventually seceded from metropolitan control and backed the independence of Camia, while the parts that remained loyal to Themiclesia withdrew to the metropole and became the Loyalist Colonial Army. The secessionists were eventually renamed during the Camian Kingdom as the Royal Camian Army, which would see extensive action in the Maverican Wars against their former comrades-in-arms. After the Regency was abolished, the "Royal" prefix was deleted. It was refounded in 1916 after the Restoration, with most of its leadership purged.

Camian Navy

While Themiclesia acceded that colonial Camia was to be defended by a professional army, it never established naval forces for Camia. Throughout the colonial era, navies, being mobile, aggressive forces, were assumed to be metropolitan. Immediately after independence in 1701, the Camian Kingdom was most focused on reinforcing its northern and western borders against other Casaterran threats and did not build a navy, assuming that Camia would be a beneficiary of Themiclesia's efforts to banish alien naval presence in the Halu'an Sea and thus secure the Camian coastline. This policy was not without its drawbacks. In 1751, when Camia decided to raise a 50% import duty on Themiclesian wines and medicinal herbs, the Themiclesian Navy barricaded the capital city's ports for nine months until the Camian government agreed to cancel the duty. This act greatly diminished the pro-Themiclesian factions' position in Camian government and generated an anti-Themiclesian sentiment in the country, across ethnic boundaries and inspired Camia's decision to align with the Norfeldians in their rebellion against Themiclesia in 1759. Having promised to deploy, the Camians again faced the Themiclesian Navy sitting in major ports, preventing them from deploying their assembled forces. Tyrannian regents thus prioritized construction of a navy, which came to fruition in 1772, with eight ships-of-the-line and ten frigates as the Camian Navy.

Camian Air Force

The Camian Air Force is the newest branch of the armed forces, founded in 1948.

Camian Home Guard

The Camian Home Guard was founded during the Second Maverican War, when Themiclesians invaded Camia while their army was fighting in Maverica. As Camia had, to this point, relied upon its professional army for defence, it did not maintain a militia system, which the army deemed a possible competitor to itself.

Camian Marine Corps

The Camian Navy was founded without an infantry department, the understanding being the Camian (Royal) Army would furnish them when required, and this appeared to be true between 1772 and the early 1800s. In the Battle of the Rafts (1840), a group of young civilians aged 14 and above from the coastal regions was galvanized by local leaders, providing them with fishing boats (the "rafts"), and assaulted the Themiclesian-controlled Isle of Liang. The operation was repulsed extremely easily, but President Randolph Carrie constituted by statute the surviving shirmishers "Camian Marines" as an official military unit, to encourage national unity though antagonism of Themiclesia. Later, under President Charles Harrington, they were increased from one regiment to four regiments for the Battle of Liang-la. When the Camian Army was revealed to have bribed several members of Parliament, President Acker III suspected that they were in league with the War Secretary. He thus created an entire division of marines (apart from the four regiments already existing) in 1875 to defend the capital city, whose coastal geography was used as an excuse. Acker insisted that the president have direct control over the capital city's troops. The division was disbanded in the following Conservative government. When Acker returned to power in 1883, he rebuilt the division, which earned the monicker "Dick's army" and "Ackerian Royal Guards".