War of the Usurper
| War of the Usurper | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Reign of Maxime Séraphin and the First Seraphic Revolution | |||||||||
 Battle of Chouteau | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Cassonne |
 Aswick | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Clément Trausse |
Field Marshall Puller, Baron Puller | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 375,000 - 625,000 | 250,000-500,000 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
Combat deaths: 100,000 |
Combat deaths: 75,000 | ||||||||
|
Military deaths from disease: 150,000 - 300,000 | |||||||||
The War of the Usurper, War of 1888, or Guerre de l'Usurpateur, was one of the largest conflicts in the 19th century in Astyria. An estimated 900,000-1.2 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle, famine, or disease.
Background
Constitutionalism in the Republic
Melisent Séraphin takes power in 1875 after her dad dies and begins trying to bring constitutional reforms to the monarchy.
Restorationists
Group of wealthy merchants and military officers begin colluding to restore absolute authority to the monarchy. Melisent goes on a public speaking tour promoting constitutionalism and gets assassinated by her son.
Rise of Maxime Séraphin
Son assassinates his mother and takes power, begins consolidating authority. Domestic troubles
Domestic troubles in Cassonne
Economic collapse due to harsh authoritarian treatment of military and civilians.
Trade disagreements
Throughout the 17th century, Aquitayne established the colonial holding of Cape Town on Insula Fera as a trade hub in the region, serving as a stopover for goods travelling from Teudallum and Hesperidesia to Lorecia, Sythith and Xalia. A large portion of that trade consisted of Cassonnaise sugar and tobacco products, which Aquitayne taxed heavily due to souring relations between its governments over the sudden demise of Melisent Séraphin and the rise of her sone, Maxime. Maxime viewed this tariff as a personal insult and attempted to force Immanuel I to remove the tax by threatening to pull all Cassonnaise shipments into the harbor. Immanuel called Maxime's bluff and told him to do so, knowing any other port would be just as expensive if not more so than Cape Town.
Due to this, Maxime and his advisors sent a diplomatic mission to Aquitayne in an effort to reduce the tarrifs which was only minorly successful. Eventually the delagation left to return to Cassonne, where Maxime became enraged and began planning his response.
Beginning of hostilities
Using Aquitayne as a scapegoat for the pressure to remove the monarchy from power that his mother was touting, Maxime declares war on Aquitayne for destabilizing the country by trying to remove its monarch, in an attempt to further consolidate power and get the economy working on a war footing. Does so by sending a diplomatic mission to distract Aquitayne from realizing a war fleet is being mobilized.
Motives also incude moving the nation's focus away from economic issues. Not expecting much resistance from Aq.
Phase I: 1888-1891
Battle of King's Bay
The Battle of King's Bay was the opening salvo in the War of the Usurper on 1 June 1888. A Cassonnaise armada, lead by Admiral Clément Trausse, engaged the Aquitaynian Home Fleet in a early-morning surprise attack that lead to the sinking of 5 Aquitaynian ships, and the scuttling of an additional 5 ships. Admiral Trausse rushed a task force of gunboats into the mouth of King's Bay, while he lead a broadside assault firing over 200 rounds into the Port of Telora within the first five minutes of the assault. Aquitaynian attempts to break out of the port and into the open ocean were unsuccessful, with the Aquitaynian flagship HMS Merovia being sunk during the attempt.
Four transport vessels also offloaded two regiments of Cassonnaise infantrymen onto the southern and northern edges of Telora during the attack. Aquitaynian shore bombardments were suppressed by Cassonne cruiser fire, leading to relatively easy shore incursions by the transport ships. The largest fighting was encountered from the northern task force's landing, due to the regiment's task of securing the army barracks situated on the north side of Telora, resulting in the Battle of Fort Tremblay. Secondarily, the island of Castineos was captured by reserve forces from the rest of Cassonne's armada in the First Battle of Castineos.
The battle ended after just three hours of fighting, leaving over 9,000 sailors dead or wounded. It is regarded as the single worst defeat in Aquitaynian naval history.
Siege of Telora
The siege of Telora took place from 5 June 1888 to 10 October 1889 and ended in the liberation of the city from Cassonnaise forces, led by Admiral Clément Trausse. The siege marked the biggest military victory and defeat for Cassonne throughout the war. Initially the invasion of the central area of Aquitayne's coastline and the siege of its capital lead Cassonnaise leaders to believe the war would be won and over within a matter of months, immeasurably strengthening Maxime Seprahiques new position as Emperor. While the first few skirmishes did leave to the complete surrounding of the city, Cassonnaise forces were unable to capture Immanuel I or the royal family, leading to a government-in-exile that would coordinate the Aquitaynian response from Ordana.
In early 1889, the Battle of Castineos would be fought, leading to the crippling of the Cassonne naval flotilla stationed in and around the Port of Telora. This strategic shift lead to the subsequent Battle of Terrurano, which forced a surrender of Cassonnaise forces and the liberation of the capital.
Government-in-exile
After the Battle of King's Bay, the monarch Immanuel I and his son, later Tiberius III, were smuggled out of the capital to the royal estate in Ordana. There, the king and his military advisors began planning for a response to the Cassonnaise invasion. The King reinstated multiple royal decrees dating back well over 150 years to the Aquitaynian War of Independence, calling on local militias to form, train, arm and provision themselves in the defense of the country. Within a matter of months, over 100,000 militiamen consolidated in Ordana alongisde Aquitaynian regulars. Despite multiple cavalry units skirmishing with Cassonnaise forces around the outskirts of the city, a breakout attempt by regiments inside were unsuccessful and attempts to infiltrate the city were largely repelled.