War of Twilight
| War of Twilight | |||||||||
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File:Flag of the Kingdom of Ainin.png Ainin  Champenia | |||||||||
The War of Twilight (French: Guerre de la crépuscule), also known as the War of the Three Nations (French: Guerre des Trois Nations) was a Conitian conflict in the mid-18th century triggered by trade disputes between Ainin, and its ally Champenia over access to Nerean Sea and control of the Conitian maritime trade. The conflict pitted X, against an Aininian-Champenian alliance established by the 1737 Treaty of Le Rocher and their respective colonies and territories.
The war was primarily fought at sea between the fleets of the three belligerents, with major naval engagements in X (17XX), Y (17XX) and Z (17XX). Land engagements were limited but involved notable amphibious assaults on possessions across the and several raids into Champenia and Mespalia. Widespread commerce raiding and privateering by all sides also ensured that the war was economically disruptive and costly in terms of money and material. Although the war began with an Aininian defeat at the Battle of the Vaneli Islands, later victories at sea by the Aininian-Champenian alliance proved decisive and significantly eroded the capacity of the navy to reinforce and communicate with its distant territories. This development led x to eventually sue for peace, resulting in the Treaty of Resnaille that conceded many colonial holdings to the allies and opened trade access to the Nerean Sea.
The outcome of the war was a major blow to the trade empire, which would never recover from the losses inflicted by the treaty and entered a protracted decline. However, it also did not spare the victors, who had to assume large debts in light of the immense attrition they suffered during the conflict. The high debt, combined with a credit crunch in 1763, led to the Aininian banking crisis of 1764 that destabilized the Kingdom of Ainin and hobbled the government's ability to administer its expansive empire and allowed the already autonomous Caconziche Karazawi to distance itself even further from Huimont. Further civil strife in the 1770s and 1780s, and a famine in 1794, eventually led to the Aininian Revolution that extinguished millennia of monarchical government in the Aininian Isles. Colonial taxes imposed by Champenia in response to the financial situation also led to unrest in Kaguia and contributed directly to its 1812 independence and the fall of the Champenian empire. Within thirty years of the war, the empires of all three belligerents had entered their twilight years, making the War of Twilight a major realignment of the Conitian balance of power.