Velvet Revolution: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox civil conflict

| title = Velvet Revolution

| image = [[File:Praha_1989-11-25,_Letná,_dav_(01).jpg|300px]]

| caption = A crowd celebrates at [[Dominican Square]] in [[Santa Maria]], 30 April 1994.

| date = 30 April 1994 (38 years ago)

* Backlash against the continuation of the [[Navidadian System]], largescale {{wp|conscription}}, massive {{wp|military expenditure}}s, and subsequent {{wp|international isolation}} after the end of the [[Occidental Cold War]]

* Poor leadership by [[Nicolas Torres]]

| methods = {{wp|Coup d'état}}

| result = Coup successful

*Sparked a civil war known as the [[Período de Salvación Democrática]]

*End of the [[Navidadian System]] and the establishment of the Loa-majority states of [[Kalanatoa]] and [[Na'aturie]]

| side1 = {{flagicon image|Logo of the DR Movement.svg}} [[Democratic Rebirth Society|DR Society]]

| leadfigures1 = {{ubl|{{flagicon|Delepasia|army-1988}} [[Vito Borbon]]|{{flagicon|Delepasia|army-1988}} [[Lazaro Elias]]}}

| leadfigures2 = {{ubl|{{flagicon|Delepasia|1988}} [[Francisco de Costa]]|{{flagicon|Delepasia|1988}} [[Nicolas Torres]]}}

| casualties3 = 5 deaths

}}

The revolution began as a coup organised by the [[Democratic Rebirth Society]] (Pelaxian: ''Sociedad del Renacimiento Democrático'', SRD; Reform Tainean: ''Kasikasgau des Reneisensa Demaukrata'', KRD), composed of military officers who opposed the regime, but was soon coupled with an unanticipated campaign of popular {{wp|civil resistance}}. An attempted coup led by conservative general and provisional commander-in-chief [[Raul Quintero]] led to a two-year long civil war known as the [[Período de Salvación Democrática]]. Negotiations with [[Loa liberation movements]] began, and by 1996, the states of [[Kalanatoa]] and [[Na'aturie]] were established, located where the former [[Loaland protectorate]] used to be.

==Background==

In {{wp|sham elections}}, which were regularly held every four years, only government-approved candidates from not just the ruling [[Nation Renewal Party]], but also from the controlled opposition, that being the ostensibly {{wp|christian democratic}} [[Democratic Revitalisation Party]] and the allegedly {{wp|social liberal}} [[Popular Reform Party]], were able to run in the actual election. Candidates from the non-controlled opposition made use of the few civil and political liberties granted to them in the 1940s to protest these with the election period, which were mandated to last only a month in most cases, being the only time where they were legally able to do such a thing before withdrawing from the actual election out of spite against the regime.

Many civilians woke up to their televisions broadcasting a ''{{wp|cadena nacional|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 {{wp|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 {{wp|progresive}} forces against a "geriatric dictatorship".

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==

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.

===Economic issues===

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.

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.

===Freedom of religion===

==Results==

==Legacy==

===Velvet Day===

==See also==

* [[Active Resistance Union]]

{{Vallos topics}}

[[Category:Velvet Revolution]]

[[Category:Coups]]

[[Category:IXWB]]