Weranian Republic
Republic of Werania Republik Ostischland | |||||||||||||
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1786-1802 | |||||||||||||
Motto: Freiheit, Gleichheit, Brüderlichkeit Freedom, equality, brotherhood | |||||||||||||
Anthem: Ostischland über alles Werania Above All | |||||||||||||
Cockade of the Republic | |||||||||||||
Capital | Westbrücken | ||||||||||||
Common languages | Official: Weranian | ||||||||||||
Religion | Official: Cult of Rationalism (1789-1802) Unofficial: | ||||||||||||
Government | Unitary revolutionary republic (1786-1792) under military dictatorship (1792-1802) | ||||||||||||
President of the Revolutionary Committee | |||||||||||||
• 1789-1802 | By rotation: 4 months duration | ||||||||||||
Legislature | National Assembly | ||||||||||||
Historical era | Early modern period | ||||||||||||
• Weranian Revolution | 3 September 1785 | ||||||||||||
• Abolition of the monarchy | 16 April 1786 | ||||||||||||
• Small constitution | 13 May 1786 | ||||||||||||
• Great Purge | 14 November 1786-22 August 1788 | ||||||||||||
• May constitution | 6 May 1792 | ||||||||||||
• Treaty of Hochgäu | 22 June 1802 | ||||||||||||
Population | |||||||||||||
• 1800 | 24,840,113 | ||||||||||||
Currency | Mark | ||||||||||||
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History of Werania |
The Republic of Werania (Weranian: Republik Ostischland) commonly referred to as the Weranian Republic (Weranian: Ostische Republik) was a revolutionary republic that emerged in northern Euclea from the abolition of the Rudolphine Confederation in April 1786 to the signing of the Treaty of Hochgäu in June 1802.
The republic came into being during the Weranian Revolution. In September 1785 revolutionaries had forced the Rudolphine Protector, Leopold III, to accept the Charter of Honau which transformed the Rudolphine Confederation into a constitutional monarchy with an elected legislature, the National Assembly (National Versammlung). Leopold III however attempted to abrogate the charter and restore absolutism in a failed self-coup known as the March of the 100 in April 1786. The March of the 100 convinced republican members of the National Assembly to seize the initiative and declare a republic, abolishing the monarchy and creating a centralised unitary republic.
The republic became quickly controlled by the republican group known as the Brotherhood of the Rights of Man who promoted the Cult of Rationalism which supported a centralised, radical republic and acute anti-clericalism. Supported by the volkstrachts the government in November 1786 launched the Great Purge, a period of political repression that sought to eliminate royalist influences in the republic spearheaded by Sigmund Auerswald and Franz Xaver Dobrizhoffer. The Great Purge included the trial and execution of Leopold III, which inflamed monarchist sentiments and led to several uprising by reactionaries known as freikorps.
The revolutionary government carried out numerous reforms. It abolished the nobility system under the Rudolphines and reorganised the internal boundaries of the state into more equally sized regierungsbezirk. The legal system was similarly overhauled into the allgemeines gesetzbuch, a unified civil code, whilst the Code of the Rights of Man was enforced into law. Most ambitiously the republicans attempted to replace Sotirianity with a atheistic civic religion. The guild system was additionally dismantled although further attempts at economic or social reform outside some economic centralisation were minimal.
The instability of the republic led to an intervention by Estmere to attempt to restore Rudolphine loyalists to power supported by Scovern and Azmara in July 1788. The republic was almost destroyed being sustained through its use of mass conscription, the massenaushebung and a talented officer corps. The conflict led to dissent sithin the radical government leading to a coup by moderate members of the National Assembly who subsequently began to conduct their own purge on radical members. The reactionary regime soon alienated army radicals led by Balthasar Hötzendorf and Otto Schönbaum who took launched their own counter-coup in 1793 and ousted the moderate government plcing radicals back in control albeit under military overdight. This led to the Miracle at Longwood where Weranian republican armies defeated an Estmerish force and rapidly turned the tide of the war, crossing the Neeves and seizing Morwall in 1794. Werania subsequently transformed Azmara and Borland into fraternal republics whilst Estmere became a client state.
The increasing power of the military saw the republic increasingly embrace militarism and adopt a siege mentality. The republic launched a pre-emptive invasion of Kirenia and Gaullica in 1795 succeeding in 1797 in annexing large sections of the Kirenian Eastern Marches. The republic during the war annexed Borland and Azmara as well as orchestrating a republican coup d'état in Estmere. By 1798 Werania had reached the zenith of its power having hegemony over much of northern Euclea, a client state in Estmere and a nominal ally in the form of Kirenia, although it was diplomatically isolated having poor relations with Gaullica, Soravia and revolutionary Etruria.
In 1800 Werania launched another pre-emptive war into Soravia. The invasion despite initial success became a debacle when Kirenia switched to Soravia's side, triggering an anti-Weranian coalition including Gaullica and Estmerish royalists to begin to fight Werania. With no allies and exhausted from almost constant war the republican armies disintegrated with the Alliance forces seizing Westbrücken in June 1802. By this point the republican government had collapsed with Ludwig von Kirchschläger signing the Treaty of Hochgäu which dissolved the republic which was subsequently partitioned into several smaller states.
The republic has continued to hold a profound legacy in northern Euclea. It served as a blueprint for later republican governments as well as the first major expression of Weranian nationalism, being a precursor to Weranian Unification four decades later. The melding together of egalitarianism, secular-rationalism, militarist-nationalism and liberal-radicalism over conservatism, clericalism and absolutism would profoundly affect later forms of liberalism and socialism in contrast to the clerical-nationalism of Gallo-Etrurian republicanism. Republicanism continues to attract support in modern day Werania.