War for Kahei
| Kahei War | ||||||
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| File:Djong Pati Unus.jpg A side by side comparaison of a Djong and a Galleon, two types of ship that were used in the war | ||||||
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| Belligerents | ||||||
 Mutul Shogunist Faction |
 Latium Kahei Kirishtan Insurgency |
 Sante Reze South Kahei Separatists | ||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||
| TBD | ||||||
| Strength | ||||||
| TBD | TBD | TBD | ||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||
| TBD | TBD | TBD | ||||
The War for Kahei, also known as the Bringing Down of the Latins’ Possessions in Kahei (Jub’uja Lak’inxibol Kahi) in the Mutul and the Far-East War in the Latium is a serie of military engagements that opposed the Latin Empire and the Mutul for the control of the Kahei Archipelago, also known as the Spice Islands, At the beginning of the 17th century.
Background
The war follow, and is a direct consequence of, the Kirishtan Uprising in Tsurushima and the end of the Open Gate Policy by the Kakita Shogunate. Latins traders had been present in the region as part of the Maritime Jade Road, in a bid to avoid Tarsas’s monopole over flux going through the Ozeros Sea by circumventing Scipia and then sailing toward Tsurushima through the Vespanian Ocean, an operation made all the more easier by the progress of sailing techniques and technologies and by the presence of numerous isolated islands or archipelagos in the Vespanian Ocean, of which the Kahei Islands were some of the most important, as they were the last stop before Tsurushima proper, and an important source of spices seeked by the Latins, such as nutmeg, mace and cloves found exclusively there.
The "Latin Legation" in Tsurushima was the final destination of the Latins traders on the Jade Road. Tsurushima was a source of Lacquer, but also of goods from Sinhai, of which the access was forbidden to foreign traders by the Shogunate, notably Porcelain, Tea, and Silk. To pay for these, the Latins traders would exchange them for luxury goods such as clothes jewelry, glasswares, and metal, in the form of gold and silver coins.
The Latins however, were not alone on the Jade Road and had competitions from Sante Reze and, in a lesser way, from the Mutul, which arrived in the region by the east since the travels of Akutze Selenecha.
In this tense situation, some Latins traders settled semi-permanently in the Vespanian region, notably the wealthy Hadrianus Vespasianus, who gave his name to the ocean, to better defend their interests. This also led to dynastic diplomacies happening between the Latins and the local aristocracy and princes of the Kahei Islands, which had already strong Tsurushimian clans settling in or mixing with them. Through various contract, some Latins families managed to acquire lands in Kahei, nicknamed the Latin Possessions, that they ruled semi-autonomously. Other trading powers did similarly, notably the Rezeses, who acquired their own lands and factories for the production and direct access to spices and the other goods of the islands. The result was that the conflicts between the various traders, their families, and nations, grafted themselves to the local networks of allied or rival clans.
The closure of the Open Gate only worsened the situation. The clans still loyal to the Shogunate and wishing to enforce its laws found themselves abandoned by the central power in Tsurushima, and at the mercy of their rivals whom took the chance to get rid of them by making alliances with the Latins and Rezeses, who had in their interest to make sure the Kahei Islands did not escape their influence despite the end of the Legations.
Escalation of Tensions
With the islands now broken into multiple factions and warring clans, the “shogunists” found themselves in a dire situation. With their calls for help being ignored by the Kakita and their ennemies being backed by the economic might of the foreign powers, they found themselves besieged in their more remote possessions and even chased from their cities by their rivals clans. Family feuds and dynastic politics characterized the civil war, and many decision, such as the spread of christianity and the repression of local cults by some of the revolted clans, came as a way to strengthen their ties to their foreign backers.
Left with no little to no other options, the Shogunists and Loyalists clans ended up calling the Mutul for help. The Mutuleses, while still not as powerful as the Latins or Rezeses in the region, had the benefit of being the last foreigners being allowed a Legation by the Kakita Shogunate and for having fought side by side with the Loyalists against the Kirishtans during the Uprising in the form of Tsuru-Mutuleses militias. The ambassadors to the loyalists clans that arrived to the Mutulese legation found there an understanding hear, who saw an opportunity to finally gain the upper hand in the Vespasian Ocean. The Nuk Nahob and the Batab of the Mutulese Legation quickly agreed to support the loyalists and pagans clans and set to prepare for war.
The War
The Mutulese fleet
The fleet built by the Nuk Nahob to support their new allies is generally considered to be the direct ancestor to the Och’k’ak Fleet. However, it was far from a professional army. Most of it were pirates and privateers quickly engaged by the Mutuleses to form the bulk of the expeditionary force. Mercenaries from the Sinhai and Benaajab almost entirely made up the ground forces being transported by the new navy. To organize these heterogeneous troops, close to no Mutuleses were presents beyond the Batab -who temporarily served as Admiral- and his staff, and the officers were either decommissioned veterans of the Shogun’s navy, Benaajabi captains and lieutenants “lend” to the Nuk Nahob by their coastals Principalities, or Kahei natives who were captains of their own ships and fused their forces with the general mass of the Mutuleses troops.
First stage of the war
The Mutulese gathered in the islands north of the Archipelago. Privateers were immediately sent to disturb the Latins lines of supplies and trades. Both the Mutuleses and the Latins had not enough troops on their own and relied on local mercenaries and allies to fight their battles. As such, the naval battles were done with the traditional tactics of Ochran, with Junks and Djongs. The Belisarians ships present in the war were mostly owned by merchants, and their own privates escorts. On their side, the Mutuleses diverted part of the firearms stocks, mostly canons, they transited through the Makrian Ocean to arm their fleet, notably the Djongs that were turned into man-o-war.
The first concern of the Mutuleses was to secure their access to the Archipelago. As such, most of the fleet was sent directly to the few ports still owned by their allies : Japatara, Kawana, and Tenam, in the northern Kahei. From there, the Mutuleses and their allies fought to secure their bridgehead by driving Latins mercenaries and privateers out of the (today gone) Muli Strait that was a vital connexion between all of the allied ports, but also by ending the siege of the nearby port of Tsumara and retaking the city of Tsukowo that had recently fallen to the assaults of the insurgents clans. After months of a slow and bloody conflict, both on land and on the sea, Tsukowo was finally retaken and the insurgents and their latins allied were forced to leave the Northern islands of the Archipelago to the Mutuleses.
Aftermath
The Kahei war, despite being rather short, was a devastating conflict for multiple reasons. It was, essentially, a civil war between rival clans that was worsened by the influx of foreign capitals and the intervention of foreign mercenaries. The latter were especially devastating for the natives populations, since most of their pay came as spoils of war. Just like the Kirishtan Rebellion that preceded it, the War for Kahei was also motivated by religious reasons, between enriched christians clans, supported by the Latins traders, and traditionals pagans clans helped by Mutuleses merchants.
This led to a surge of violence, with sometime entire villages being exterminated, either by neighborhood settlements of a different confession, or by columns of mercenaries wandering the islands seeking anything of value to plunder. While at first there were ransoms asked for captured noblemen, quickly the capture of a castle ended with the massacre of all caught members of the besieged clan, and many old families were exterminated.
The very geography of the archipelago, with its many small islands and montaineous interiors covered with tropical jungles, played a role in the violence of the conflict : favoring guerilla tactics from both sides, limiting the number of ranged battles. Even on the seas, privateers and pirates did most of the damages, while important naval battles were few and far in between, as the massive man-o-wars had difficulties navigating the many canals and passes between the islands. Fortresses built in strategic positions took months to destroy, and only with the use of canons, superior firepower, and numbers. Once again, both the clanic and religious aspects of the conflict made surrending an unthinkable option.
As for the demography of the island, the war devastating, with an estimated 20% of the total civilian population dying, either because of the war itself or because of the diseases brought by the influx of foreigners and the destruction of most infrastructures weakening the populations. Famines were common because foreign cereals, on which the cities were dependent as the islands lacked agrarian lands, couldn’t be delivered. Fishermen couldn’t work under the threat of pirates, denying the natives access to one of their major source of calories, seafood.
The harsh repression of the insurgents clans after the defeat of the Latins was extensive, with the Mutul holding tribunals to judge the captured and defeated rebel leaders. Many captives were sacrificed, which “shocked” the clans allied to the Mutuleses, without provoking any movements of contestation beyond protests, which were calmed when the Nuk Nahob shared the possessions of the executed aristocrats among their allies.
This redistribution of the lands was done through long negotiations between the various clans and the Nuk Nahob. The Mutuleses obtained direct rule over the Latins Possessions, but also of vast sway of lands that belonged to small, latin-aligned, clans that separated the numerous exclaves, enclaves, ports, farms, and forests that the Belisarians had bought. While the Rezeses lost some of their islands and allies in the war, they kept possessions in the south of the archipelago until the 18th century.
The destruction and division of the Kahei Islands allowed for the Mutuleses to continue the work started by the Latins. The spices and silviculture became the dominant activities of the countrysides and inlands, in vast farmlands owned by Mutuleses traders or local aristocratic clans. The spices were sent to Hoxi peten, the siege of power of the Nuk Nahob in Kahei, and important marketplace dedicated to the exchange of spices, while the wood was destined to Japarata, renamed by the Mutuleses Kuwon Peten, as the dockyard of the city were the main producers of Djongs for the Mutulese navy.
The war was the event that made the Mutul realize what the Kirishtan Uprising truly meant and how much the power balance in the Vespanian Ocean had been changed. The use of mercenaries and local troops was also studied by the Nuk Nahob, in both its success and failing, and how a certain level of decentralization could compensate for the distance between the Mutul and Ochran could allow for them to maintain control over their new lands.
The silence of the Kakita Shogunate and its lack of support toward the loyals Tsuru-natives clans was also the confirmation of the end of Tsurushima’s dominion over Kahei. Slowly, the Tsuru-Natives clans will turn toward the representative of the Mutul in the archipelago, first the Kahi Halach Winik then later the Kahi Yajaw, for help, assistance, and to serve as the arbiter of the clans. While legitimacy was still taken from the Tennō (the Tsurushiman Emperor’s title), it soon became common practice to never mention the actual name of the Tennō. At the height of the Mutul’s hegemony over the archipelago in the first half of the 18th century, mention of a Tennō Chaak or Kami Tennō were made, with the symbolic used going from clear representations of the Tsurushimans Emperors to those of the K’uhul Ajaw. Traditionalism and Conservatism will however greatly slow down the process of the “Oxidentalisation” of Kahei beyond a few aspects of politics and of the economy.
For the Latins, the war was the final blow to their presence and influence in the Vespanian Ocean. Some of the most wealthy families of traders and merchants lost both possessions, members, and revenues, plus the loans and credits took to support the conflicts that couldn’t be refunded. This however, served to reinforce the presence of the Latins in the “Thalassian trade Network”, between Norumbia, Belisaria and Scipia, in which the Latium doubled down its efforts to maintain its control of the seas, in open rivalry with the Rezeses Sea Lords. This refocus of the Latium’s national interests, and the regain of popularity of plans for a powerful Imperial Navy capable to defend them, allowed for many reforms to take place, and for the Imperial Throne to take a more prominent role on the seas in future conflicts of the 17th century.
Religious aspect of the conflict
Christianity had become an influential force in the Kahei Islands since the arrival of Latin traders and, with them, of preachers and missionaries. Conversions among the people of the islands or the Tsuru-native clans happened either through genuine face, or political / social reasons. Despite the Kirishtan Uprising leading to distrust toward christianity from the more conservative and traditionalists clans, the abandon of the Kahei Islands by the Shogunate authorities and the resulting power vacuum was seen by some of the most ambitious clans as an opportunity. The resulting alliance between these clans and the foreigners, generally Latins and Rezeses, led to many convertion, either genuine or politically motivated.
The converts will then start campaigns of repression and mass conversion against regions and villages attached to the “heathen ways”. The violence had little support from the Belisarians in the archipelago. Even if a small number of independent priests and monks preached in favour of the mass conversion, with sometime direct involvement in them, a majority of the present clergy and religious orders denounced it, to no avail.
Once the Shogunists and Mutuleses started to gain the upper hand, the repression switched side, with thousands of christians being forced either to disavow their new religion by kissing the feet of idols, participating in large burning of bibles, crosses and icons, or were just massacred. Found preachers, elders and leaders of christians settlements, and other figures of authority of the communities, were generally brought to the Mutuleses, whom ritually sacrificed them but to “Their Eastern gods” and not to Tsuru-Kahei divinities, as the practice was considered repulsive by the Tsuru-natives clans, even if they tolerated it.
Long after the end of the war, distrust against christianity and Fabrian Catholicism in particular was still strong in the political class of the islands, kept alive by the Mutuleses authorities who performed many ceremonies and public events at fixed date to remind the population of the war and its consequences. Religion became an important part of the Mutul’s policy in Kahei, taking their legitimacy from the respect of the local customs and beliefs, making registries of all known gods in the various islands in what are known as the Kahi Codices, which are lists of native gods, their local and mutuleses names, roles, ceremonies, and many other informations. To this days, the many codices and registries the Mutuleses wrote on the Kahei gods, beliefs, customs, religious practices, and mythology, are an important source of information for modern days practitioners of “Kahism”, even if vocal minorities are still trying to separate the “true” local beliefs from what the Mutuleses authorities inserted, twisted, or directly linked to their own beliefs, practices, and mythology, as a way to further expand their legitimacy.