Western Civil War

Western Civil War
File:Infobox Collage for the WCW.png Clockwise from top left: Belfrasian Infantrymen at the Battle of Karlsfield (1940), Belfrasian advance through the border (1939), Isn Deslen Accords signed 1939, Nos Venturum bombing 1939, Western Confederal States-Belfras border 1943, Battle of Townsville (1945).
Date February 10, 1899 - December 3, 1945 (46 Years) Location Lusankya Result Full Anti-citizenist victory Surrender of the CRW Start of the Karlsfield trials in Viridia
Belligerents
Anti-Citizenist Western Confederal States Belfras Template:Country data Protectorate of Kwontyani Kwontyani Template:Country data Myrdesia Supported by: Belhavia Rodarion	Pro-Citizenist Template:Country data CRW Citizens' Republic of the West Free Occidentian Republic
Commanders and leaders
James McBlaren Nathaniel Hansen Frederic Wellson George Hampton	Template:Country data CRW Harold Markhower Template:Country data CRW Gregory Goldsmith Template:Country data CRW Jack Kasinsky Template:Country data CRW Fredrick McGregory

The Western Civil War was a civil war in the Western Confederacy from February 1899 until December 1945. The combating parties were the Citizens' Republic of The West (CRW) and the Western Confederal States (WCS), backed substantially by the Belfrasian Armed Forces.

The war was a result of political and economic unrest in the Confederacy leading to the secession of the Kensington and Montgomery. A new country was formed, the Citizens' Republic of the West, comprising both states. Territorial disputes and ideological persecutions have played a key role in the further development of the war leading to both military and civilian casualties, especially for the Confederacy.

In October 1939 the Belfrasian Empire intervened in the civil war siding with the Confederacy after an agreement was signed by the two parties known as the Isn Deslen Accords. The following years after the agreement both forces managed to push back Citizenist forces and enforced a stable military occupation of the Northern Territories. On December 4th, 1945 the CRW officially surrendered.

Background

Main article: Cause of the War

In the 1880s the oligarchic authorities of the Western Confederal States were subject to widespread corruption, as well as taking part in several scandals such as the October Famine in the Northern Territories. In march 1895 Marcus Yohannes, Western dissident, wrote a book titled 'CIVIUM CREDULITATIS', it described the tenets of a controversial anarchist ideology that indirectly condemned the aristocracy. It hence promoted an alignment to democracy through the reduction of government authority. Its production went widespread the following months and so went the popularity of the dissident amongst the lower-class, and to a lesser extent the middle-class which predominantly populated the Northern Territories, but was laughed off by the upper-class which predominantly populated the Southern Territories. By June 15th 1897 Yohannes was convicted for hate speech and rape, of whom he both has been falsely accused according to his followers. During his subsequent imprisonment it is stated that he died of heart failure at the age of 74. This coincided with the massive unemployment rate in the Northern Territories which instigated rebellion against the Confederal Government from April 5th-April 10th 1896.

On February 1, 1897 the State of Kensington seceded from the Western Confederation. On February 9, 1897, as democracy was fully institutionalized, Its legislature was determined; tetracameral, and its executive powers were in the hands of a 'Revolutionary President'. Citizenism, based on the ideals of dissident Marcus Yohannes, gained significant support. To a point in which Harold Markhower went in office as the first revolutionary president of the State of Kensington. A shift in its policies made the Republic adequate and devoted to the ideology to the extreme and started full scale Citizenist implementations which culminated on the 5th of March 1899 with the creation of the Citizens' Republic of the West, abbreviated; CRW.

In the first stages of the regime, the authorities were granted more supervision and democracy was mandatory. The people were keen on their civil rights and the individualist mindset through collectivism. In March 1898 the first national amendment act passed the tetracameral congress, it entailed proscriptions with a good amount of anti-aristocratic and anti-authoritarian sentiment directed mostly against the Kingdom of Belfras and the Western Confederacy, hence severed all pre-existing ties with nations that aligned itself with such or were classified as 'undesirable to the Revolutionary Guide'. The latter of which being the core principles within the CIVIUM CREDULITATIS. The repercussions of which worsened its foreign relations, especially with the Confederacy. Domestically its citizens were prohibited to participate in any activities undemocratic and against the revolutionary guide, government security agencies such as the CSA and to a lesser extent the DWIA had a close watch on all citizens within the Republic. The belligerence grew with Markhower's proclamation that all 'undesirables' should be systematically erased through executions.

File:Declaration of War WCW.jpg

February 10, 1899 decleration of war by the Confederal Senate.

The referendum taken in Dunville, Montgomery on 21st of June 1898 resulted to the secession of the State of Montgomery and a subsequent accession to the C.R.W. in August 1898. The latter infuriated the confederacy and officially put a hold to any further referendums organised in the states. After the Viridian City shelling, President of the Confederacy, McBlaren, issued a declaration of war against the Citizens' Republic of the West.

"[T]he self-proclaimed Citizens' Republic of the West, and its leader President Markhower have violated the constitution of the Confederacy by posing a threat to the sovereignty of the seven Confederal States, its peoples and society. This unprecedented and unprovoked act of aggression [Viridian City shelling] is unilaterally condemned by the Confederal Senate, unilaterally condemned by the House of Viridia, House of Torchland, House of Iron Vale, and the House of South Lake. As an act of aggression against our country we are obliged to treat it as such. Speaking on behalf of the moral high ground, on behalf of the president of the Western Confederal States, its peoples, and its states, I hereby declare that the Western Confederal States finds itself from this day forward in a state of war with the Citizens' Republic of the West, its allies, its supporters, its puppets and further affiliates and associates."

The Citizens' Council of the Citizens' Republic of the West contrarily saw it as an act of liberation, being that the voices of the people were ignored after the referendum of Iron Vale was brought to a hold. The CRW Council had likewise declared a state of war against the Confederacy, a civil war broke out that would last for 46 years, with on and off fighting between the combatants.

Combating parties

Pro-Citizenist

• Template:Country data CRW Citizens' Republic of the West - was the largest force on the pro-Citizenist front. contrarily to the WCS the CRW stood for a strong bond between the states. When it was established with the independence of Kensington and later the enlargement with the accession of Montgomery, started a process of unity and strength. Both states worked very close together on all fields, making state-level governments redundant to a point in which they were abolished in the 1890s and replaced by a tetracameral congress, where the democratic voice of the people was to be preserved. The CRW was very pro-citizenist, and radically pro-guidelines interpreted by Yohannes. The core tenets of the guide included the opposition of all authoritarian forms of government, opposition of all social distinctions, calling those who are not; misguided and undesirable. Every household under the regime had to have at least one copy of The Guide. The general population was heavily indoctrinated, despite the fact that its leadership, including revolutionary president Harold Markhower, put emphasis on preserving left-libertarianism it often acted like the oppressors and thus it contradicted itself. The CRW gained a lot of support among the working class of the northern territories, as well as the middle class to an extent. A lot of Confederate soldiers switched sides to fight with the Revolutionary Army, and the Revolutionary Air Force.

• Template:Country data Occidentales Front Free Occidentian Republic -

Anti-Citizenist

• Western Confederal States - The Western Confederal States was a firm aristocratic confederation in the 1800s. Within the Confederacy, however, there was a loose connection between the states and policy-making was mostly handled on local level. It operated much like a night-watchman state whose only legitimate function is the protection of individuals from assault, theft, breach of contract, and fraud, and the only legitimate governmental institutions are the military, police, and courts. As establishing combatant it had the Confederal Army and the Confederal Navy on its side, but as the war progressed many soldiers switched sides to fight with the Revolutionary Army. During the civil war, the Confederate states had significant international support diplomatically, financially and militarily. Throughout the civil war there were a lot of foreign volunteers present from nations such as Belhavia, Rodarion and United Republic that supported the Confederacy. It also had significant financial support from the Riverdale family, Western Bank, Hudson Angelo, and many more.

• Kingdom of Belfras - Even prior to the signing of the Isn Deslen Accords being signed in 1939 the Kingdom were a strong contributor toward the Confederal States. Concerns in regards to the way in which the war was being lost to Citizenism, an ideology that was wholly against the values that the Belfrasian government held dear and one that particularly held the Belfrasians in contempt due to the royal infrastructure. Mass deliberation and a speech by Prime Minister Nathaniel Hansen brought about the Isn Deslen Accords. Shortly after the accords were signed the Belfrasian Army and Royal Air Force invaded the country's neighbour to liberate it from Citizenism. Historians have picked apart the reasoning behind the signing of the accords, which broiled down to simple facts. With the Rodar-Belfrasian War being roughly thirty years prior, the Kingdom needed both a display of sheer military might and could ill afford another hostile nation at it's border.

• Papal Republic of Rodarion - the Papal Republic throughout the civil war made continuous efforts to support the Western Confederal States, through supplies, volunteers and Papal blessings. In 1904, Pope Julius II proclaimed Citizenism alongside Communism "crimes against Christian Civilisation" and instigated harsh measures against any advocate of both ideologies in the Papal States and from 1905 onwards, the Papal Republic. The Romulan Catholic Church became a prominent recruiter of volunteers inside the WCS and abroad, the Church also offered to pay the travel fees of every volunteer willing to fight for the WCS if they were Catholic. In 1930, the Order of the Cross established the Continental Volunteer Corps (Continentale Corpi di Volontari; CCV) to be sent into the WCS to support its war effort. It would not be until the 1940s that the Papal Republic and the CRW came into direct conflict. Between 1941 and 1945, the CRW and PRR clashed on numerous occasions along their shared border, these culminated in the Battle of San Pancrazio Salentino in April 1944, where 10,000 Rodarian soldiers crossed the border of the CRW to destroy a cross-border Citizenist militia that was attempting to export Citizenism to north-western Rodarion.

Course of the Civil War

Fall of Viridian City 1900

Main article: Viridian City

Impact

When it comes to casualties estimates surrounding the civil war vary because most went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 10 million people died in the war, including about 3 million military personnel and 7 million civilians. Many of the civilians died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation.

Van Suckenberg is an independent research institute that specializes in the civil war. The 1995 Van Suckerberg report suggests there is a total death toll of 12 million, of which 8 million civilian casualties and 4 million military. The report also states that most of the civilian - and military confirmed casualties were visible at the height of the war from 1939-1945.

According to many independent sources the death toll on non-Western soil is estimated at around ~90,000 directly or indirectly caused by the war, most of this number is derived from the Bombing of Nos Venturum; in Nos Venturum CRW started a relentless bombing campaign on civilian and - to a lesser extent - military targets in the city after the Isn Deslen accords. At least 25,000-30,000 Belfrasian civilians died. There were also huge border clashes between Belfras and the CRW and Rodarion and the CRW, in South Lake and Torchland respectively.

After the liberation of the northern territories in 1945, the discovery of widespread death camps and concentration camps led to additional speculations on the amount of deaths. According to scholars the first concentration camp built was in 1905 for undesirables, called the Pinhof Prison, near Pinhof village, which held: Aristocrats, autocrats, POWs, religion, big business, and royals. As the war progressed and the CRW adopted a more radical take in the late 1930s, death camps were introduced as a means to eradicate any form of opposition. More often than not, people that identified themselves as citizen of the WCS, Rodarion and Belfras were ferociously interrogated by the secret service of the Citizenist state and ended up in death camps as well.

In addition to internment camps and death camps, people were often shot in the streets if they did not comply with the principles of the charter of the Citizens Republic, or they were trialed, which was but a mere sentencing giving the victim the chance to choose between death or imprisonment. The latter meant deportation to one of the death camps to get shot in one of the shooting chambers. These tactics were similarly produced by the Free Occidentian Republic which focused on persecuting Rodarians and rodar-catholics in Torchland, scholars call the genocidal tactics of the Free Occidentian Republic as one of the cruelest during the civil war.