Galarian Regime
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| 1940–1945 | |
Motto: "Nation, Family, God" | |
Anthem: "O Army, Sentinel Be of Me" | |
| Location of the Empire of Belhavia (dark green) – with Ayton-Shelvay (light green) – in the world (gray) Location of the Empire of Belhavia (dark green) – with Ayton-Shelvay (light green)
– in the world (gray) | |
| Capital | Provisa |
| Common languages | Belhavian English |
| Religion | Orthodox Judaism |
| Government | Authoritarian-nationalist dictatorship, constitutional monarchy (nominally) |
| Head of state | |
• 1940 - 1945 | Emperor David IV (nominal) |
• 1940 - 1945 | General Zachary Galarian |
| Legislature | Rump Senate |
| Historical era | Cold War |
• Galarian Coup | September 5th, 1940 |
• Stein's Midnight Mutiny | May 21st, 1945 |
| Currency | Belhavian Shekel |
| |
The Galarian Autocracy, commonly also known as the Galarian Regime, the Galarian Era, or the Galarian Dictatorship, was an authoritarian-nationalist regime under the leadership of General Zachary Galarian, self-styled as the so-called "Supreme Autocrat," that ruled Belhavia from 1940 to 1945. It took its name from a self-coup carried out by Galarian, with Imperial support from Emperor David IV, on September 5th, 1940. Galarianism became the state ideology. It was opposed by the Emmerian-based Belhavian government-in-exile, led by Matthew Rabin.
Background & Origins
Rise of the Fascist Party in the 1920s and 1930s
Andrew Rothson converted to fascism overseas in the late 1910s. When he returned to Belhavia, he proselytized among the Old Right seeking to turn fascist ideology into a potent political force to be reckoned with in Belhavia.
By early 1922, the nascent fascists had sufficient elite support to extend their persuasion campaign to a more popular level, reaching out to working- and middle-income communities. With wealthy backers and a growing electoral base, the Fascists suddenly became a salient third-party force that risked being a spoiler in defeating enough Federalists that the opposition Liberals and Democratic parties could create a coalition majority of the Imperial Senate.
The 1928 - 1933 Recession
The Recession of 1928 - 1933 hit the developed, industrialized nations of the world hard. Stock indices from the Franklin Stock Exchange in the Western Confederacy to the Provisa Stock Exchange in Belhavia to indices in the Kingdom of Belfras and the Chaleur Stock Exchange in Emmeria had a series of financial crises.
The Provisa Stock Exchange lost 8% of its value on what is called "Red Tuesday" on January 4th, 1928. In most countries, unemployment spiked as countries scrambled in reaction to the wildfire-like spread of the recession's dampening effects on economic activity.
Concurrent with this five-year recession was the rise of - or in some cases, the fortuitous political opportunity for - extremist and radical political movements and parties, especially on the far-right.
Late 1930s
The 5th of September Military Coup
Belhavian Authoritarianism
Attempts at Social Control
Political Repression
Economic Policy
Foreign Relations and Alienation Overseas
General Galarian severed ties with a few important Belhavian allies, especially among the liberal democracies of the global Northwestern. His government cultivated several allies with like-minded ideological regimes (particular those aligned with or close to right-wing authoritarianism) and established cordial relations with other governments with near-ideological similarity or geopolitical convenience.
Belhavia under the Galarian era had close relations with the Arthuristan National State, being its chief military ally, geopolitical and economic patron, and later, arguably its political puppetmaster. It was also cordial with the Papal Republic of Rodarion and Empire of Tarsas.
Some of Belhavia's formerly-close allies and trading partners in the liberal democracy bloc - particularly the United Republic of Emmeria, the Commonwealth of Arthurista, and Dominion of Edwardia - became hostile geopolitical foes to the Galarian regime. Emmeria, in particular, hosted a government-in-exile staffed mostly by left-wing intellectuals and exiled or on-the-run Liberal Democrats. It was headed by Matthew Rabin.
Belhavia under the Autocracy supported the 'United Republics' warlord-republican faction in the Ulthrannic Empire's civil war, and fought a victorious war with the breakaway Ulthrannic territory of Livirica in the early 1940s.
Fall of Galarian: the Stein Coup
Provisa Riots of 1944
Unpopularity Within the Military
Near Collapse of the Arthuristan National State
By the spring of 1945, it was clear to Provisa that the Arthuristan National State was nearing a complete and utter defeat from the Commonwealth's steady wave of offensives into the fascist west following the decisive Battle of XXX in mid-1943, the conclusion of which saw the near-complete destruction of the National Navy's capital ship contingent.
Government military and political leaders were increasingly nervous about the prospect of a Commonwealth victory, a key geopolitical foe, and the collapse of a crucial allied power in Central Lusankya.
Galarian spoke increasingly by April and early May 1945 of dispatching a whole Imperial Army Field Group to stave off the inevitable Fascist defeat and create an allied puppet regime in western Arthurista more stable and malleable to Provisa's influence. Throughout the military hierarchy, officers and commanders began to openly question Galarian's sanity and strategic military prowess in light of the National State's looming defeat.
This intensified the Supreme Autocrat's already deepening unpopularity among his previously-loyal bastion of support in the military. It also introduced doubts about Galarian's military brilliance, a key piece of morale that had cemented the military's strong loyalty to him initially.
With Galarian's faltering and increasingly insular decision-making, a group of liberal military officers disillusioned with the General's reign began to meet to discuss a change in government. The conspiracy was headed by Abraham Stein, an Imperial Army major-general with secret Liberal Democrat leanings who was in contact with Rabin in Oured, D.A.
Stein's Midnight Mutiny
Post-Galarian Belhavia
Belhavia in the years after Galarian's fall represented a diametrical foil to the type of nation and society the Supreme Autocrat attempted to craft while he was at the helm of the Empire. Liberal Democrat Matthew Rabin stewarded the country through a brief Provisional Government and then a restoration of the Empire, though firmly swayed by left-wing elites.
Although opposed to Galarianist thought, the newfound liberal political order in Belhavia utilized Galarian's centralization of power in the Imperial Government in Provisa to initiate a period characterized by Keynesian thought, welfare statism, and checks and balances on government police power in the private realm.
Historians have called the long period from 1940-1981 as the "Liberal Heyday," or, alternatively, the "Liberal Aberration." Though firmly a rightist himself, Galarian's turn towards authoritarianism and denial of the legal political process strengthened the Belhavian left in the middle-late 20th century, with liberal figures dominating the post-Galarian Provisional Government and early Restoration Period of the Empire.
Rather than be recognized as a well-intentioned reactionary, Galarian has developed an image among the public as the unwitting harbinger of a mismatched liberal political regime which increasingly came into tension with the decidedly conservative society. It would take until 1981 for the liberal political order to be peacefully dismantled progressively under the Settas presidency, which by 1989 had thoroughly undone much of the left-oriented public policy of the post-Galarian era.