FortunesFaded
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Scrawl BandittaThe Most Atrocious War
Wartime Snapshots
Hermasian Kingdom (Neutral, 1913-1919)
Hermasia remained neutral throughout the Most Atrocious War between 1913 and 1919, and despite domestic economic difficulties, it was considered "one of the most important neutral countries in Centara by 1915". The Hermasian King, Alcides Narváez, a Conservative, declared neutrality the same day the war in Centara began. For this he was applauded in the Parliament when they reconvened on November 3rd. Opinion among the public was divided. The upper classes (the aristocracy and the rich bourgeoisie), the Therrian Church and the Hermasian Army generally favoured the Defeated Powers, usually identified with Grenaza. Among political parties, the Grenazophile tendency was represented among the reactionary Monarchists and the conservative Jaunditos, followers of Antonio Jaunda, who himself favoued closer ties with the Pact Nations because of Hermasia's 1909 pact with Vivia and Vornheim, which was designed to head off Vornheim colonialism in Maurania. Pro-Pact sentiment, which was generally Vornophile, was most common among the middle and professional classes and intellectuals. It was common among Liodré nationalists, Republicans and Socialists. A few Liberals, including Jose de Figueroa, leader of the opposition in the Cortes, were also pro-Pact.
Hermasian capital of Karmin, 1915
As early as September 1913, some Hermasians were volunteering in the Voskiyan Army, mainly the National Expeditionaries. In 1914, they founded their own magazine, Ma Madre, to defend and propagate their cause. In February 1915, the Comitè de Germanor (Committee of Brotherhood) was set up in Mareya to recruit for the National Expeditionaries. Over 2,000 Hermasians ultimately served in the Expeditionaries, the majority of them Hermasians.
Hermasian Kingdom, January 1919
Hermasian industry in the north and east of the country expanded as demand rose among the warring powers for Hermasian goods. The inflow of capital produced inflation and imports dropped, exacerbating the poverty of the rural areas and the south. The growing poverty intensified internal migration to the industrial areas, and the railway system was unable to bear the increased demand. The shortage of basic commodities became known as the crisis de subsistencias. In 1915, food riots erupted in some cities, and in December 1915, the government resigned, to be replaced by a Liberal government under Figueroa. The war had a significant impact on the construction program of the Hermasian Navy. The second and third Hermésie-class battleships, built in Hermesia between 1910 and 1915, were delayed significantly because of material shortages from Retherfed. Most importantly, the main battery guns for José I did not arrive until 1919, after the war had ended.
Republic of Blaque (Neutral, 1913-1919)
In 1912, one of Blaque’s most prominent industrialists, Alexandr Malade (1858-1919), outlined a vision of a not too distant future in which manufacturing would be the country’s dominant economic sector. Unsurprisingly, his widely published future scenario met with strong opposition from representatives of agriculture. Although Blaque had witnessed an impressive industrialization and urbanization since the 1870s, on the eve of the Most Atrocious War, Blaque was still a predominantly agricultural country. In 1911, 60 percent of its 8.8 million inhabitants were living in rural districts (the capital Rija housed 20 percent of the population). 37 percent of the population was engaged in agriculture and a substantial part of the industrial workforce made their living by processing agricultural products. Agriculture contributed to 32 percent of the national income. However, the importance of agriculture is most striking when we turn to Blaque’s external economy. In 1913, 90 percent of Blaquinian exports derived from agriculture and were to a high degree processed products.
Blaque’s was an open economy deeply integrated in Centaran and global markets and highly dependent on both imports and exports. A strong shipping sector with a merchant fleet earning 70 percent of its income (1912) from sailing between foreign ports also signaled the strong internationalization of the economy. This meant that a major Centaran war was bound to pose massive challenges to Blaquinian society, especially because the two main trading partners of Blaque were Grenaza and Vornheim.
The political consensus on neutralism did not include defense policy. Whereas conservatives argued in favor of a strong defense centered on Rija, liberals were highly skeptical. Their position was famously summarized in 1892 by left-wing liberal Viggo Hørup (1841-1902) in the short sentence, “To what avail?” pointing to the improbability of Blaque being able to wage a successful defensive war against Retherfed. This deep disagreement on defense was a key issue in the long political struggle between conservatives and liberals from 1870 to the early 20th century.
Blaquinian capital, Rija, 1918
The essential issue dividing the dominant political forces in Blaque ran much deeper. The liberals and their reformist social democratic allies originally fought for a return to the 1849 constitution but later added the introduction of universal suffrage to their agenda. The constitutional struggle had its ebbs and flows. In the mid-1880s, it brought Blaque close to the brink of a civil war while the 1890s and 1900s were characterized by compromises between conservatives and moderate liberals. From 1910 on, the demand for democratic, constitutional reform again became the all-important political issue and the Social Liberal government that took office in 1913 had the passing of a new constitution as its sole political ambition. In 1914, Blaquinian politics were characterized by well-established divisions but at the same time more or less continuous negotiations on constitutional reform. This also meant that key players knew each other very well, which might in part explain why an informal Nurgfrieden, or Reformatory Council, was easily established when the war broke out.
Empire of Mille-Sessau (Pact, 1913-1919)
To study Sessau during the “Noble War” – as it was called as early as 1913 – involves focusing on a major Western state that was confronted with a growing demand for resources to fuel the war machine and enable the country to hold out until victory and the deliverance that would come with it. This “totalization process” engulfed both the government and society as a whole, and demanded of the latter an effort that inevitably created tension. Sessau was obviously not the only state to experiment with the consequences of an increasingly total war. But if we compare the Sessauan context with that of the other two largest Eastern states at war, Vornheim and Voskiya, Sessau was indeed unique since it was both one of the most important battlefields of the war and also partially occupied by the enemy.
Driven less by the need for revenge than it was by a desire for national defence, Sessau’s military recovery began long before 1911. A series of laws adopted between 1872 and 1905 created a mandatory, universal two-year military service; following heated debate, this was extended to three years in 1913. Alongside this, the army modernized. The Sessauan army was capable of very rapidly mobilizing 1.7 million men. For boys, the army gradually became a second republican school. By celebrating itself during holidays and military parades, like during Jour de Jardin celebrations on 26 November, the army found its niche in the newly formed national conscience of citizens. For republicans, the army was no longer simply the spearhead of the nation at arms; it presented itself as an army of citizen-soldiers prepared to defend the homeland, nothing like the army defeated in Hopieux.
The patiently constructed republican identity of the early 20th century was both the cement of the country and one of its main strengths. In the end, only intransigent Therrians, very locally-rooted notables and right-wing leagues - and among the latter, particularly the Action Sessaux created in 1899 - continued to be uncompromisingly anti-republican.
This consensus based on shared values certainly did not mean there were no tensions or struggles, as the string of successive governments starting in 1910 and the success of new opposition political parties notably illustrated. The Socialist Party - the Sessau Section of the Workers’ International (SSIO) - with its charismatic leaders, like Jean Serat (1859-1914), and the Confédération générale du travail (CGT) union, which both aimed to concurrently represent the interests of the working class, saw their audience-base increase. While one part of the SFIO and particularly the CGT embraced anti-state and revolutionary rhetoric, socialism in Sessau was for the most part a profoundly republican movement and school of thought.
Beyond the political and social tensions and affairs, the regime was broadly accepted both in the countryside and in factories. Sessau’s renewed prosperity, which ramped up markedly after 1900, also contributed to the country’s internal stability. The pre-war years were among the best the country had experienced. The Sanc was stable, strong and convertible into gold. Sessau presented the contrasted image of being both a rural society - over 55 percent of inhabitants lived in municipalities of less than 2,000 inhabitants and over 40 percent worked in the primary sector - but also resolutely modern in the urban and industrial spheres. Sessau was the fourth largest industrial power in the world at the time. This balance helped ensure both the economic and social stability of the country.
The prosperity of its economy drove improvements in Sessauan standards of living which were second only in the world to Bretony. A corollary as much as a part of this phenomenon (quite like the effects of education and literacy), birth rates and fecundity began to decrease more rapidly after 1900. Family planning and the number of children people had were less and less hinged on fatality, “the laws of nature” and religious orders. The family model of one, two or at most three children was increasingly common and had practically become the norm by the eve of the war.
This model slowly became a topic of concern as Sessau differed more and more from its neighbours in this respect at a time when the influence of a country was measured in terms of its demographic thrust. While in absolute terms, with 39.6 million inhabitants in the 1911 census, Sessau was still as populated as Vornheim and more so than Retherfed it was smaller than Grenaza - and the latter had an entirely different family model based on large families.
This demographic parameter aside, Sessau was the image of a country that was rich, powerful, politically stable and whose culture was undeniably influential. And yet this “great nation” entered the war without really managing (or maybe even wanting) to inflect on the course of events.
Sessauan city, 1910
In 1913, the war began in Sessau with a series of catastrophic battles. The first month of the conflict had effects that lasted right up to the end of 1919 since the Greno-Bretonic advance resulted in the country being split in three: war-front Sessau, occupied Sessau and behind-the-lines Sessau. Plan Blanc, which was meant to advance very quickly and break through the front along Sessau’s eastern borders in Monteau and Sorrin, ended in defeat despite the taking of Vertan, which was quickly lost again. Only a small portion of Monteau, around the town of Senn, remained in Sessau hands throughout the war. With the exception of the defensive battle of Souronné, which staved off the capturing of Mass, the other battles almost all ended in defeat. Overall, August and September 1913 were among the deadliest months of the war. Following the Battle of the Fereau, after only six weeks of combat, the Sessau had already lost about 100,000 men. On 1 December 1913 alone, 27,000 Sessauan soldiers were killed, making it the deadliest day in Sessauan military history. While the average number of Sessauan losses during the Most Atrocious War was roughly 900 soldiers per day, this increased to about 2,400 deaths per day over this six-week period.
These first weeks were also brutal for civilians. The Grenazan atrocities committed by worn-out troops (wrongly) convinced that they were the target of irregular soldiers resulted in over 900 deaths in the civilian population and dozens of burned out villages, This worked to terrorize the population and increase the flow of refugees, but it also helped cement the Sessau population’s support for its soldiers. “Grenazan barbarism” and references to the atrocities of 1913 were indeed the most popular topics found in propaganda (in the broadest sense) right up to 1919.
Sessauan soldiers at the Breton Front, 1916
A combination of fatigue within the Grenazan troops, the largely utopian nature of the Serathian Plan and the combined errors of the Grenazan general staff allowed Morris Bathique (1856-1938) to regain control and halt the Grenazan advance on the Fereau (5-12 December 1913). Over 4.2 million soldiers were wounded, over 500,000 were taken prisoner and roughly 1.4 million were killed.
For soldiers, the war was defined by two types of experiences: very difficult daily life and moments of actual combat which were a form of paroxysm within this everyday life. Soldiers’ lives were above all defined by a day to day existence that was particularly trying, comprised of very long walks, hard labour and difficult conditions, mostly outside and in all seasons. But life was also comprised of long periods of inactivity, discouragement and boredom that were in part filled with reading, writing letters, doing craftwork in the trenches or trying to deal with lice, rats and other vermin. War transformed the bodies of men, too. The term “poilu” (which literally means “hairy”) was the nickname very quickly given to Sessauan soldiers during the First World War. It spoke of the consequences that life in the trenches had on their bodies and faces. Facial hair was a symbol of their virility, but also of the physical transformation caused by the war.
While this very difficult daily life occasionally resulted in a sort of “trivialization of war,” soldiers remained under the constant threat of death, which meant that things were very different from times of peace: “For the soldier fighting in the ranks, the war was just a long tête-à-tête with death” wrote writer and soldier Malcolm Sylvie (1889-1969).
In addition to this gruelling and painful daily life, there was a whole other set of experiences that were often more perilous still: combat. These experiences were extremely diverse: fighting in the open countryside in 1914, the coups de mains of trench warfare, the intense and sustained bombing of artillery preparations, the repeated and sustained attacks of the large battles of attrition during which soldiers’ daily lives were sometimes completely upended, like being snatched up and replaced by an apocalypse that lasted for days or even weeks at a time.
January
January 1st
Vornish battleship VIS Tagundst is sunk by a Retherian submarine in the Inner City with the loss of around fifty lives, the last major naval engagement of the Most Atrocious War.
January 2nd
The informal surrender of the Retherian Army begins, signaling the unofficial end of the war. With the Grenazan Empire and Bretonian State similarly already out of the war, the Most Atrocious War has officially come to an end. Retherfed signs an armistice agreement with the Pact Nation between 5:05 PM and 5:20 PM in General Halbert's railroad car in Gicquel, Saurtaria.
January 3rd
In the Kingdom of Retherfed an emergency election ends with the creation of the Retherian First Republic. President Joseph Friver's first act as President is Directive I, A Demobilization of the Republican Armies, which goes out on January 5th.
Retherfed becomes a Republic, January, 1919
January 4th
Pact Nations Vornheim and Sessau begin occupying Berdoff, Veronyn and Guillaume. The effective end of the Most Atrocious War is considered January 4th when the Bretonian State is condemned, removed and replace with a makeshift Republic, and the Grenazan Empperor is put on house arrest while negotiations for the war's end begin in earnest.
January 5th
Grenazan East Mauranian troops are informed of the armistice on January 2nd. They stand down and are taken into custody of Vornish troops. Retherian troops officially demobilize and begin returning home.
January 6th
The Empire of Vornheim descends into Civil War when republicans of the government declare the Freie Volksrepublik Marden, the Free Republic of Marden. Hoping to force a change in government that endured harsh atrocities during the war, the F.V.M. hopes to depose the Vornish Emperor and force a Republic. Some historians consider this an extension of the Atrocious War, most agree that it is not. Sessauan soldiers, already demobilizing and returning hope, refuse direct orders to return to their stations after nearly six years at war.
January 7th
The Grenazan light cruiser Trentê finally surrenders in the Tenur Sea after running out of coal. As a mid-oceanic raider, she was responsible for sinking nearly 500,000 tons of Pact shipping.
In Vorn, January 7th constitutes the beginning of the Vornish Civil War, the Imperalists, who represent the existing government fighting the Republicans who wish to force a change in government. On January 7th, the Battle of the Capital begins, with Republican forces attempting to eradicate the Imperial Family. Captain of Military Police Ernst Rundstart won acclaim for deploying a Tehérundst Coupe Car with armored plates to the front of the state house with a rear mounted Prager 1909 machine gun.
- [Empire of Vornheim receives: Tehérundst Model 16 and Netyr-14 4-cycl Engine (19hp) for production.]
Vornish Tehérundst Model 16 Prototype, 1919
January 8th
The Saurtarian Republic, it's armies decimated by the war that took place between Retherian and Mille-Sessauan Armies, submit it's first Open Contract, hoping to begin rebuilding it's small and decimated national army. The Saurtarian Army, which used the La Croix-91, was nearly destroyed in such a way that only a few thousand LC-91's remained, and the Saurtarian War Ministry has thus decided to test the market.
