Velvet Revolution

Velvet Revolution
A crowd celebrates the resignation and exile of Francisco de Costa and Alberto Bahamonde at Dominican Square in Santa Maria, 30 April 1984.
Date 30 April 1984 – 7 September 1994 (10 years, 4 months, 1 week and 1 day) Location Delepasian Commonwealth Result Revolutionary victory Full results Commander-in-chief Francisco de Costa and prime minister Alberto Bahamonde forced to resign and were exiled to the Cape in May of 1984. Hector del Cruces elected as commander-in-chief in 1984, deposed in early 1985. Raul Quintero overthrows del Cruces and takes over as commander-in-chief 1985-1987. Ricardo Valentino creates an alliance of pro-democracy forces 1985. Council of the National Revolution between anti-Quintero leaders 1986. Quintero's Imperial Delepasian Armed Forces overthrown by Valentino's alliance 1987. Vito Borbon's socialist army declares rebellion against Valentino 1987. Borbon's army defeats Valentino and takes over as commander-in-chief 1989. Attempted rebellions against Borbon's government by both liberal and Pascualist forces 1989-1994. Borbon appoints Antonio Hernandez as provisional prime minister 1994. Emperor Maximilian I elected as commander-in-chief after Borbon's resignation 1994. Constituent Assembly elections held on 7 September 1994. End of the Navidadian System and the establishment of the Loa-majority states of Kalanatoa and Na'aturie 1995. Castadillaan Constitution of 1996 ratified 1996. Eventual emergence of the People's Democratic Party and consolidation of the post-revolutionary government 1997. Admittance of Samalosi as Castadilla's twentieth state 1997.
Belligerents
Government factions: 1984: Estado Social Pascualists Imperial Army	Rebel factions: 1984: Crucesists Colorados Borbonists
1984-1985: Crucesists Imperial Army Borbonists	1984-1985: Quinterists Colorados
1985-1987: Quinterists Imperial Army Colorados	1985-1987: Valentinists Borbonists
1987-1989: Valentinists	1987-1989: Velvetines
1989-1994: Velvetines	1989-1994: Pascualists Valentinists
Commanders and leaders
Francisco de Costa Alberto Bahamonde	Hector del Cruces Lazaro Elias
Casualties and losses
5 deaths

The Velvet Revolution (Pelaxian: Revolución de Terciopelo; Reform Tainean: Revaulousiaun des Velaus), also known as the Decade of Lead (Pelaxian: Década de Plomo; Reform Tainean: Dekeni des Plaum), was a series of armed civil conflicts that occurred throughout Castadilla for roughly a decade from 30 April 1984 until its generally-accepted conclusion on 7 September 1994. It is considered to be the definitive event in Castadilla's modern history which saw the collapse of the Estado Social, the dismantling of the Navidadian System, and the emergence of the current socialist post-revolutionary government. The socialist Borbonist faction would emerge victorious and would soon make way for an elected provisional government that saw the drafting of the present-day Constitution of Castadilla which not only saw Castadilla transform from the unitary authoritarian conservative regime that had ruled the nation for over six decades into a federal socialist-leaning government that has ruled for the past four decades, but also the emergence of a powerful executive monarch for the first time on Castadillaan soil since before the fall of the Pelaxian monarchy in 1852.

The Estado Social, while initially popular in the first few decades of its existence, had began to stagnate in popularity since the mid-1970s and most especially after Fernando Pascual, the founder of the Estado Social regime, suffered a stroke in 1980 and was replaced by reformist Nicolas Torres. The popularity of Torres' reforms had made his subsequent assassination in 1983 into a source of mass public outcry as the regime was seemingly trying to prevent these reforms from coming to fruition. However, despite the rampant unpopularity of the Estado Social and of commander-in-chief Franciso de Costa, whom many had accused of orchestrating the assassination of Torres, there was no visible sign that a revolution was going to break out. In 1984, liberal miltary officer and government minister Hector del Cruces would challenge de Costa in that year's chief executive election only to be issued a warrant for his arrest. Nonetheless, del Cruces was able to evade capture and fled to rural Auxana where he called for an active rebellion against the regime. This resulted in multiple armed rebellions throughout mainland Delepasia that the armed forces was unable to effectively suppress. Fearing possible societal collapse, de Costa, alongside his prime minister Alberto Bahamonde, resigned and subsequently went into exile in the Cape on 1 May 1984.

Del Cruces would be elected as commander-in-chief just one week later on 8 May that same year. Although widely popular throughout the country, many elements in the armed forces, although reformist, felt that del Cruces was going too far with his proposed reforms. In response to these fears, Raul Quintero, the forefather of conservative reformism within the former Estado Social, led a coup d'etat against del Cruces in mid-1985 which saw the latter being forced to resign and designating Quintero as his successor. This coup was met with outrage from all revolutionary factions, with del Cruces' protégé Ricardo Valentino and left-wing military officer Vito Borbon forming an anti-Quintero alliance. Quintero's attempted conservative democratic government would last until 1987 when the Valentino-Borbon alliance, better known as the "velvetines", defeated the Imperial Delepasian Armed Forces. The anti-Quintero alliance would fracture shortly afterward with the Borbonist faction eventually defeating Valentinist forces in the summer of 1989. Borbon consolidated his power, surviving multiple uprisings from both liberal and Pascualist forces up until the final cessation of hostilities in 1994. Borbon's final act was to appoint socialist general Antonio Hernandez as prime minister before resigning as commander-in-chief shortly afterward; the subsequent chief executive election would see Emperor Maximilian I unexpectedly winning the election and becoming the new commander-in-chief, and the Constituent Assembly election on 7 September 1994 would see the Velvet Revolution finally come to an end.

From 1994 until 1997, the newly-elected provisional government would draft a new constitution that was put into effect on 21 January 1997. The Castadillaan Constitution of 1996 established many princples that did not exist in the Estado Social's constitution. Chief among these principles were federalism, secularism, multiculturalism, executive monarchism, and the fundamental principles of Borbon's Velvetine Socialism. The 1996 Castadillaan legislative election would see the nascent People's Democratic Party, which was designated by the constitution as Castadilla's vanguard party for Velvetine Socialism, enter into a coalition with the Christian National Party as part of the nation's first post-revolutionary constitutional government. Subsequent elections, however, would see the People's Democratic Party ruling alone as a majority government, a position that it retains to this day. Other major changes that came as a result of the Velvet Revolution was the dismantling of the Navidadian System, which saw the states of Kalanatoa and Na'aturie being admitted in 1995, and the eventual admittance of Samalosi as the nation's twentieth state in 1997.

The Velvet Revolution got its name from the fact that the initial rebellion which saw the resignation of de Costa and Bahamonde was nearly bloodless, especially in comparison to the subsequent civil war phase, and from the oft-used nickname for the revolutionary factions throughout the civil war phase, that being the "velvetines". In Castadilla, 30 April is a national holiday (Latin: Dies Holoserica; Pelaxian: Día de Terciopelo; Reform Tainean: Gouei des Velaus) that commemorates the start of the revolution.

Background

See also: Fernando Pascual, Estado Social (Castadilla), Francisco de Costa, Nicolas Torres, and Alberto Bahamonde

The rise of Fernando Pascual and the precursor to his Estado Social began with the appointment of Pascual as the minister of finance for Bahia in 1920 within a month after the Bahian military overthrew the increasingly unstable republic. A noted university professor of economics, Pascual was seen as a natural choice for minister of finance, and such an appointment would pay off for within a year Pascual had managed to not only balance the Bahian budget but he also gave it its first budget surplus in nearly twenty years. In thanks for his invaluable work as finance minister, Bahian president Isidor de Santa Anna appointed Pascual as Prime Minister of Rosaria in 1921, and was subsequently elected as President of the Forals, head of government of the Delepasian Confederation, in 1922. This universal support from all across Delepasia had given Pascual a near-blank cheque to pass sweeping reforms through the drafting of a new "national constitution". This new constitution, the Delepasian constitution of 1924, was drafted by lawyers, businessmen, members of the clergy, and even some intellectuals; it greatly centralised Delepasia, thus forming the Delepasian Commonwealth, a Delepasian nation-state under a conservative, Catholic, authoritarian, Julian-based regime christened by Pascual as the Estado Social.

Under the Estado Social, the Loa Laws were put into effect throughout all of Delepasia, Catholicism would be made the state religion with a concordat being signed in 1948 which gave the Church a wide array of privileges while at the same time giving Pascual the ability to appoint clerical figures, and the economy would transition towards a form corporatism as Pascual saw it as both an anti-socialist economic theory as well as a very Church-friendly economic theory; corporatism was born from an interpretation of a 19th Century papal cyclical that formed the fundamental principles behind Catholic social teaching. Although the Estado Social was an authoritarian conservative regime, Pascual still insisted on certain values such as the equality of all citizens before the law, keeping the Church away from the political sphere, and instilled a sense of Delepasian exceptionalism. Despite the regime being largely nationalistic, however, Pascual still held a disdain towards Caphiric fascism which he saw as being a semi-pagan and youth-oriented exaltation of the state that held a revolutionary bent; the Estado Social, in Pascual's eyes, was a regime designed to preserve the traditional Delepasian order, not to bring forth immense change.

This aversion to change could be seen in the early decades of the regime with Pascual clinging to corporatism up until the 1970s, resulting in economic stagnation after a period of steady economic growth spanning from the 1920s up until that point. However, there were also certain aspects of the regime that Pascual opted to change. Most notably in the political sphere when during the late 1940s he permitted the establishment of opposition parties as well as allowing "approved" opposition parties, which were in fact simply a means to prop up a controlled opposition, to win seats in the National Assembly through legislative elections. These sham elections would quickly become a quick and easy way to legally air out one's grievances towards the government with many independent opposition candidates withdrawing just before election day in an effort to delegitimise the elections, and those that remain in the running were usually either jailed or given very few, it any, votes.

The 1970s would see the implementation of token economic reforms in the mainland. These reforms would see certain sectors of the economy open up to the international market, though to keep the nation's wealthiest families happy all business would have to be conducted through the family-owned conglomerates. Another major aspect of the 1970s was the establishment of the Loaland Protectorate. Seen as the final goal of the Loa Laws and the Navidadian System, the Loaland Protectorate was seen as an independent Loa republic wherein all Loa would be forced to immigrate to as the last vestiges of whatever citizenship the Loa had in Delepasia would be stripped. This final goal would also see the emergence of Loa liberation groups which subsequently began to instigate skirmishes against the Delepasian armed forces, thus beginning the Loaland campaign which were both immensely costly and required a lot of manpower through the use of conscripts. These campaigns would prove to be a great enough burden upon the regime that the earliest instances of public opposition against the regime would emerge, though due to Pascual's personal popularity many had still hoped for a peaceful transition to democracy.

In 1980, after serving almost sixty years as Delepasia's prime minister, Pascual suffered a stroke just two weeks before his ninety-ninth birthday. While incapacitated, he was replaced by his protégé Nicolas Torres. Torres, a reformist who aligned himself with the younger technocrats of the regime, began to implement a series of reforms that sought to liberalise the regime to ensure its continuation by the year 2000. These reforms, although popular, were met with intense opposition from the high echelons of the armed forces, the heads of the nation's largest family-owned conglomerates which have emerged as a consequence of Pascual's corporatism, and commander-in-chief Francisco de Costa who was not keen on giving Torres the near-blank cheque on power like he had with Pascual. Thus, in 1983, Torres was assassinated by an armed gunman under orders of de Costa, who subsequently appointed Alberto Bahamonde to serve as Torres' replacement. The assassination would lead to a massive public outcry against the regime.

The 1984 chief executive election would see the rise of independent opposition candidate Hector del Cruces. Del Cruces, although a military officer and a liberal member of the Estado Social, had grown disillusioned with the current Pascualist system and so announced his intention to run as an opposition candidate against de Costa. Despite multiple threats and requests to get del Cruces to withdraw his candidacy, he still campaigned vigorously and effectively to the point that there were questions that de Costa might actually get voted out of office. To prevent this scenario from happening, de Costa issued an order for del Cruces' arrest which prompted him to flee to rural Auxana while de Costa was announced the winner of the election through an "electoral upset".

Economic conditions

The Estado Social regime's economic policy encouraged the formation of large conglomerates. The regime maintained a policy of corporatism, which resulted in the placement of much of the economy in the hands of the gransindinales, large family-owned-and-operated conglomerates. The most notable of these included the Alonso family, the de la Puente family, the Zavala family, and the Serrano family.

The Zavalas held the largest of these conglomerates, the United Manufacturing Company, with a wide and varied range of interests including insurance, ship-building both naval and commercial, tourism, banking, paper-manufacturing, and even consumer electronics (mostly video game consoles and computers; there was an attempt in 1982 to buy Televideo from the state which fell through due to the high price tag).

Asides from the gransindinales, there was the agrupresas, medium-sized family companies with more specialised interests. These groupings were more common in rural inland areas of the country, as the gransindinales had a stranglehold in urban areas and along the coast, and mostly engaged in agriculture and forestry, though some engaged in tourism and engineered wood.

Independent labour unions were prohibited, and minimum wage laws were horrifically outdated, some having not been updated since the 1920s in more extreme cases. Widespread conscription in the 1980s would open up the labour market for the rapid incorporation of women to make up for the lack of male labourers.

Revolution

Further information: Timeline of the Velvet Revolution

In February 1994, Torres decided to remove General Raul Quintero from the command of the Delepasian forces in southwest Navidadia in face of increasing disagreement with the promotion of military officers and the direction of Delepasia's anti-Loa policies as part of the Navidadian System. This occurred shortly after the publication of Quintero's book, Delepasia and Year 2000, which expressed his political and military views of the Navidadian System and the anti-Loa policies as a whole. Several military officers who were in opposition of these sectarian institutions formed the DR Society to overthrow the government in a military coup. The DR Society was headed by Vito Borbon, Lazaro Elias, and future prime minister Francisco Carvalho, and was joined later by Manuel Ruiz. The movement was aided by other Delepasian army officers who supported Quintero and democratic civil and military reform. It is speculated that Fidel de la Pena actually led the revolution.

The coup had two secret signals. First, Eva Avalos's "Adiós a Mi Verano" was aired on Sistema Consolidado de Radiodifusión de Santa María at 10:55 p.m. on 29 April, alerting rebel captains and soldiers to begin the coup. The second signal came at 12:20 a.m. on 30 April, when Radioeucaristía broadcasted "Gracia Renovada de las Estrellas" (a song by Alejandro Garcia, an influential political folk musician and singer whose works were banned from Delepasian radio at the time due to his left-wing views; Gracia Renovada de las Estrellas, however, was not banned). The DR Society gave the signals to take over strategic points of power in the country, most notably the main infrastructure for the nation's emergency warning system.

Many civilians woke up to their televisions broadcasting a cadena urging not only anti-Pascualist members of the armed forces to rebel against the regime, but to also advise civilians to shelter in place so as to prevent casualties. This was followed by an attempted countercoup by Pascualists on 1 May at noon and even briefly succeeded in taking back the nation's emergency warning system and sending out their own cadena reassuring civilians that order will be restored and the rebels will be punished while also issuing a shelter in place mandate. This countercoup was repelled by Vito Borbon an hour later and the original cadena was restored. Thousands of civilians took to the streets shortly afterward in support of the insurgents, many of whom gathered at Dominican Square in Santa Maria where the end of the Viceroyalty of Los Rumas was declared 142 years prior. What made this surprising was the fact that there existed no mass demonstrations or revolt beforehand to serve as the prelude to the coup, and yet sudden civilian involvement helped turn the insurgency from a military coup into a popular revolution led by the progresive forces against a "geriatric dictatorship".

Torres found refuge in the main headquarters of the fuvicivides at the Plaza Batista. This building was surrounded by the DR Scoiety, who pressured him into ceding the premiership to General Quintero. Torres and the head of the United Delepasian Armed Forces, Francisco de Costa, were sent to The Cape; both would spend the rest of their lives there until their deaths in 2000 and 2007, respectively. Emperor Maximilian I, however, threw his support in favour of the revolution, specifically in support of the moderate socialist Velvetines who led the coup. The revolution was closely watched by neighbouring Almadaria, fearing a possible refugee crisis should a civil war happen.

Four civilians were shot dead by government forces under the Ministry of Internal Security, whose personnel involved were later arrested by the DR Society.

Aftermath

Main article: Castadillaan transition to democracy

After the coup, power was held by the Junta for the Salvation of Civility (a military junta). Castadilla experienced a turbulent period, known as the Período de Salvación Democrática (Democratic Salvation Period).

The conservative forces surrounding Quintero and the DR Society initially confronted each other (whether openly or clandestinely), and Quintero was forced to appoint key DR Society figures to senior security positions. Quintaro, with the help of "liberal Pascualists" and members of the former regime's controlled opposition, attempted an unsuccessful right-wing coup on 2 June which was repelled by Borbon with the help of his far-left faction of the DR Society who subsequently removed Quintero from the premiership and replaced him with a radical leftist figure. This unilateral appointment was met with opposition from the more moderate factions of the DR Society, and the group soon splintered and dissolved by July. From this point onward, the two factions during the PSD were the Borbon-led far-left cabaceros (steelheads) and the moderate left-wing aterciopeladistas (velvetines) which was backed by the Emperor himself.

This stage of the PSD lasted until the Coup of 3 December 1995, led by a group of cabacero officers, specifically Vito Borbon, who at this point had become the face of the cabaceros. It was characterised by the Velveitines as a totalitarian plot to seize power in order to discredit the then-powerful cabacero faction. It was followed by a successful counter-coup by Velvetine officers led by the Emperor himself, and was marked by constant friction between the moderate reformist-socialist forces and the radical revolutionary-Communist factions before the former ultimately won out. Delepasia's first free election was held on 30 April 1995 to write a new constitution to replace the Constitution of 1976, which was deemed a relic from the Estado Social and unsuitable to govern a multicultural nation. Another election was held in 1996 and the first constitutional government, led by "velvetine socialist" Fancisco Carvalho, took office in 1997 and has remained in office ever since.

Economic issues

The Delepasian economy changed significantly between 1981 and 1993. Total output (GDP at factor cost) saw an impressive 120 percent growth in real terms. The pre-revolutionary period was characterised by a robust annual growth rate in GDP by 6.9 percent, in industrial production by nine percent, in consumption by 6.5 percent, and in gross fixed capital formation by 7.8 percent. The revolutionary period experienced a slowly-growing economy, with further growth upon its entry into the Vallosian Economic Association in the early 2000s. Although Castadilla would ultimately surpass its pre-revolutionary growth over a decade after the revolution, at the time of the revolution it was an underdeveloped country with poor infrastructure, inefficient agriculture and was among the lowest in health and education indicators in Sarpedon.

Pre-revolutionary Delepasia was able to make certain social and economic achievements. After a long period of economic decline after the dissolution of the Viceroyalty of Los Rumas in 1852, the Delepasian economies had collectively recovered slightly since the 1930s. It began a period of economic growth in common with the rest of Vallos, of which it was the poorest until the 2000s, with major growth starting in 1980, creating an opportunity for integration with the more developed economies of Vallos despite its increasingly outdated form of government. Through emigration, trade, tourism and foreign investment, individuals and companies changed their patterns of production and consumption. The increasing complexity of a growing economy sparked new technical and organisational challenges that had to be faced. This growth was briefly accelerated into a small boom during the liberal experimentation of the Torres premiership from 1988 until entering into a state of economic decline in 1993 when Pascualist hardliners reversed the reforms.

Military expenses, much of which were inherited from Navidadia, were especially high as the Delepasian government continued to repress and quell the Loa culture and revolts, and such burdens were only getting larger, thus forcing the government to find continuous sources and financing and try to reduce military expenses in creative ways, most notably by increasing the number of officers through incorporating militia and military-academy officers as equals. Another reason for these cost-cutting measures was to finance the construction of a major spaceport for Vallos located in northern Loaland (now Kalanatoa), taking advantage of the lack of labour laws in the protectorate to further lower costs. This spaceport (now the Vito Borbon Memorial Spaceport) was completed in early 1994.

According to government sources and estimates, about 12,000,000 hectares (approx. 29,652,646 acres) of agricultural land were seized between May 1994 and December 1995 as part of the cabacero-led land reform; about 23 percent of the appropriations were ruled illegal. In January 1996, the government pledged to restore the illegally-occupied land to its owners before the year 2000, and had enacted the Land Reform Review Council the following month. Restoration of illegally-occupied land to their previous owners began in 1997, with the last parcel being restored in December 1999.

In 1980, Delepasia's per-capita GDP was 42 percent of the Vallosian Economic Association average. By the end of the Pascual period in 1988 it had risen to 54 percent, and in 1993 it had reached 61.7 percent before declining to 58.7 percent in 1994; the percentages were affected by the percent of the budget which underwrote the anti-Loa campaigns, that being about 45 percent, and the dismantling of the Torres reforms prior to the revolution which put an end to the brief economic boom. In 1995 (the year of the greatest civil turmoil), Delepasia's per-capita GDP further declined to 56.3 percent of the VEA average. Due to revolutionary economic policies, multiple threats of coups and counter-coups from both the right and from the left, Delepasia began an economic crisis in 1994-1995.

Real gross domestic product growth resumed as a result of Castadilla's economic resurgence since 2005 and adhesion to the Vallosian Economic Association (VEA). The country's 2011 per-capita GDP reached 102.8 percent of the VEA average, nearly twice the level at the height of the revolutionary period.

Freedom of religion

The constitution of 1996 guarantees all religions the right to practice, and non-Catholic groups are recognised as legal entities under the law complete with the right to assemble. Non-Catholic conscientious objectors now have the right to apply for alternative military service. The Catholic Church, however, retains constitutional recognition as the nation's historical faith as a part of its cultural heritage.

Results

After an early period of turmoil that threatened to tear the country apart in a civil war, Castadilla emerged as a democratic country, having dropped the name "Delepasia" in favour of the name "Castadilla" as part of a reconciliation programme with the nation's racial minorities. Castadilla also transitioned from a unitary state to a federation, even recognising Classical Latin and Reform Tainean as official languages alongside Pelaxian as well as establishing the Loa-majority states of Kalanatoa and Na'aturie, states led by the dual heads of the syncretic faith Marian Kapuhenasa.

Legacy

Many Castadillaan streets and squares are named after either the day of the revolution (30 April), or the name of the revolution (velvet, or velvetine), most notably in the official ideology of the People's Democratic Party, Velvetine socialism. The Imperial Vallosi Mint mints a commemorative 5-peso coin every five years starting in 1999 in honour of the Velvet Revolution.

Velvet Day

Velvet Day (30 April) is a national holiday, with state-sponsored and spontaneous celebrations of the civil liberties and political freedoms that were achieved after the revolution. It celebrates the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and Castadilla's first free and democratic constitution that went into effect on that date two years later.

See also

• Revolution of 1852
• Active Resistance Union