War of the Northern Confederation

The War of the Northern Confederation was a military conflict in Cusinaut between the Apostolic Kingdom of Urcea and its native allies and members of the Northern Confederation. Initially started as a blood feud between Mixcala and Tepetlcali, two members of the Confederation, Urcean intervention lead to full scale escalation of the conflict. The Confederation government, which had lost legitimacy in the eyes of Mixcala and other tribes and cities, collapsed following a string of Urcean allied military victories in 2008 and 2009, including the destruction of Tepetlcali, once a leading city of the Confederation.

Following the conflict, several regional tribes and cities were reorganized into a new confederation, the Kingdom of New Harren, in union with the Apostolic King of Urcea. The remainder of the Confederation's territories were absorbed into Algoquona, who refused to join New Harren and rapidly annexed the remainder of the Confederation's former territory. The conflict inaugurated The Deluge, a period of increased Occidental involvement in Western Crona.

Background
The Northern Confederation existed as a binding union of many dozen small tribes and Cronan cities since the 17th century, but the leading tribes of the Confederation were the Honeoye, the Mixcala, the Cheektowaga, the Tepetlcali, the Algosh, and up until 1910, the Schoharie. The Confederation, which provided mutual defense and ensured fair trade agreements between its members, played a critical role in discouraging Occidental expansion into northwestern Crona until the 21st Century. Urcea's efforts to break the Northern Confederation and expand its colony in Crona were half-hearted at best and had been repulsed several times in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Beginning in the mid 20th Century, internal disputes and Occidental encroachment lead to a general weakening and loss of face of the Confederation. The commercial domination of the Confederation by the Honeoye in the 20th century lead to resentment and suspicion among the members of the geographic center of the Confederation. Increasing border skirmishes between the Algosh, Canandaigua, Gowandis, and others gradually destabilized the outward facing political cohesion once enjoyed by the Confederation, leading to members separately pursuing foreign allies. In 2004, a short skirmish between Tonawandis and Cheektowaga lead to the capture of Cheektowaga's Chief Axigalantu, and the Confederation government was unable to resolve the dispute. Subsequently, following years of disagreement between Mixcala and Tepetlcali, a large Tepetlcali force sacked Mixcala in early 2008. A blood feud ensued, which completely destabilized the Northern Confederation, and the Algosh took advantage of the chaos and began to subjugate other members of the Confederation under the leadership of its Hierarchs, who served as war chiefs. The Apostolic Kingdom of Urcea intervened on behalf of Mixcala, forming an alliance. The Royal and Imperial Army deployed eight divisions to the New Harren colony and organized them as the Army of St. Thomas under the purview of the Far Western Command commanded by Lecáti Martin St. Clair, while Urcean diplomat Martin de Daphan worked to establish ties with prospective Urcean allies.

Tonawandis
In the beginning of March 2008, following the agreement between Mixcala and Urcea, the Urcean Royal Navy launched a preemptive strike on Tonawandis, the Confederation member closest to the New Harren colony which controlled the coastline near Cao. The attack on Tonawandis consisted of a two-day and night naval bombardment followed by an amphibious attack by the Royal Marine Corps. Tonawandis, which had no defenses save concrete machine gun emplacements and a mid-20th Century frigate re-purposed as an artillery barge, which was quickly destroyed by the Royal Navy. Use of armed air-cushioned landing craft to spearhead the assault resulted in a mostly uncontested Urcean landing. Urcean forces then proceeded inland to try and capture major settlements in Tonawandis territory as part of a pseudo-blitzkrieg strategy to decapitate the Tonawandisi tribal government. Advancing, Royal Fusiliers fought the Battle of Cattaraugus on March 6th, losing 77 fusiliers against more than 250 native losses. The capture of Cattaraugus was significant as it was where the Tonawandisi were holding Axigalantu, former Chief of the Cheektowaga. Axigalantu on his part pledged alliance, conversion to Catholicism, and loyalty to Urcea if restored in his land, which Urcean negotiators agreed to.

The remainder of the Tonawandis campaign saw little organized resistance as the Army of St. Thomas continued its inland march, finally pacifying the last Tonawandis settlement on August 19th, 2008. Despite its status as a conquered tribe rather than an allied one, the Urcean Government promised Tonawandis would be fully represented in the new, Urcean-led confederation to come. Despite this promise, about half of the Tonawandisi army did not lay down their arms continued to fight on for the remaining two years of fighting.

Tepetlcali
Simultaneous to the Tonawandis campaign, Urcean special forces and aerial infantry began a campaign against the city-state of Tepetlcali. Following a few skirmishes, the Royal Air Force inserted a brigade's worth of Air Grenadiers within the city's boundaries on March 15th, 2008. Following a night of dense street fighting, Urcean forces disabled the city's power grid and communications network, after which time several thousand Mixcalan soldiers entered the city and sacked Tepetlcali, which was soon after depopulated. With the destruction of its main city and capture of its High War Chiefs, the Tepetlcali city-state imploded, though some resistance continued until the territory was cleared by July 2009.

Cheektowaga
With Chief Axigalantu in hand, the Urcean Royal Navy began to bombard Cheektowaga in August of 2009 and a general amphibious advance of 15,000 Urcean and Mixcalan troops dislodged most of the initial defenders, allowing Axigalantu to land and establish a rival court, and many Cheektowagans rose to support him. A quick campaign in September and October overcame the whole of Cheektowaga as Urcean, Mixcalan, and Cheektowagan troops fought off loyalists. The incumbent chief, Axigalantu's nephew Amagonzes, fled to Quetzenkel at the end of October but was handed over to the Royal and Imperial Army as a token of good faith by the Quetzenkeli. The Royal and Imperial Army turned Amagonzes over to the Cheektowagans, who executed him following his refusal to swear allegiance.

Algoquona and Free Cities
With the lower tribes pacified by the fall of 2009, the Royal and Imperial Army advised the Concilium Purpaidá that the war aims of Urcea were achieved and that a viable confederation could be created out of the newly controlled lands. Still, a small alliance of twenty seven cities and villages pledged resistance to the Urceans and alliance with Algoquona. Algoquona, on its part, was unwilling to come to an accommodation and, on November 14th, 2009, more than 40,000 Algoquonan warriors and several hundred vehicles invaded northern Cheektowaga and overwhelmed the outnumbered Urcean and Cheektowagan forces there, forcing them back to the southern coast of Cheektowaga. A four month Urcean bombing campaign ensued in an effort to dislodge them. In April 2010, the Army of St. Thomas advanced north with 30,000 men and pushed the Algoquona out by July, when the Algoquona were willing to come to terms. The free cities submitted to Urcea the same month.

Aftermath
As a consequence of the war, the Northern Confederation completely disintegrated by 2010, and many of its tribes outside of the area of fighting decided to accept Algoquona overlordship rather than exist as an independent polity. Strengthened by its new wards, the Algoquona conquered the remaining northwestern portions of the Northern Confederation by early 2011, establishing it as the major native power in Northwestern Crona. Though Urcea and Algoquona agreed to a ceasefire in July of 2010, the war did not formally end until the Treaty of Narasseta came into force in November 2012.

In 2010, Urcea and its native allies, in addition to Tonawandis which it had conquered in 2008, formed the Kingdom of New Harren, a confederation of Levantine colonies, tribes, city-states, and other native polities. Nominally independent but in personal union with the Apostolic King of Urcea, the Kingdom of New Harren has largely supplanted the Northern Confederation as the preeminent "native league" in Northwestern Crona. Mixcalans have taken an extremely influential role in the affairs of the Kingdom and are second only to Urceans in terms of positions of power and distributed homesteads within conquered portions of the Kingdom.