Almadarian Civil War

Almadarian Civil War
Clockwise from top left: XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX
Date 1 October 2036 – 15 March 2037 (5 months and 2 weeks) Location Former Almadaria Result Valverdist victory Full results Democratic forces engaged in active combat defected to the Valverdists in February 2037. Democratic opposition government fled to neighbouring Castadilla to establish a government-in-exile in early March 2037. Remaining forces loyal to the democratic opposition fled to neighbouring Castadilla to join the government-in-exile. Valverdist leader Ernesto Allende declared victory on 15 March 2037. Revenant Valverdia Vanguard rebranded to Revenant Valverdia Party. Valverdist government began invasion of Arona in June 2037. Central Vallosi War began after the Valverdist conquest of Arona.
Belligerents
Valverdists	Democrats
Commanders and leaders
Ernesto Allende Jorge Ricardo	Cesar Estevez Inez Batista
Casualties and losses
50 thousand total casualties 12 thousand refugees outside Almadaria

The Almadarian Civil War was a short-lived period of civil war in the former nation of Almadaria which had lasted from 1 October 2036 until XX XX 2037. The conflict is considered to be the prelude to the Central Vallos War, the first major conflict between two Vallosi nations since the invasion and conquest of the Romany Kingdoms from 1748 until 1751 by the Loa Empire, as well as the beginning of the end of Almadaria as an independent nation.

The preceding rebellion which led to the civil war came to as a surprise to the international community as Almadaria had been seen as a rather stable nation, even with its rather tumultuous history with democratisation. Prior to the rebellion in late September of 2036, Almadaria was under the presidency of Arturo Nuñez whom many have attributed to being one of the main causes behind Almadaria's trend towards democratic backsliding as well as the nation's subsequent embracing of statist socially conservative cultural nationalism. This new regime was a large source of tension in Vallos, with many instances of President Nuñez claiming parts of neighbouring countries such as Castadilla, Takatta Loa, and even the entirety of Arona as rightful Almadarian land. In September of 2036, Almadaria experienced a series of terror bombings throughout the country which came with the rise of the Revenant Valverdia Vanguard. These bombings proved to be destablising to the point that armed groups known as "vigilantes" rose up against the Almadarian government and stormed the nation's capital of Piedratorres. This uprising lasted for a few days before the "vigilantes" won and took over Piedratorres and established their own ultranationalist government.

In response to the victory of the ultranationalist Valverdists in Piedratorres, members of the independent opposition during the Nuñez presidency evacuated from the nation's capital to establish a rival democratic government in the south. This democratic government, known as the United Republic of Almadaria, had gained international recognition mostly as very few, if any, nations were willing to recognise the Valverdist government. The Valverdist president Ernesto Allende made a speech on 28 September 2036 which called upon people to engage in open hostilities against the southern democratic government, referring to it as an "anarchy" under the rule of the nation's Tainean and Loa minorities. These calls for open hostilities made it pretty clear that there would be no other way for tensions to end than through armed conflict, and on 1 October 2036 the two rival Almadarian governments declared war on one another with the goal to eliminate the opposing government.

Although the democratic opposition government had initially won the first major battles of the civil war throughout the rest of 2036, they were almost always pyrrhic victories as most of these victories came at a heavy loss of equipment thanks to the effectiveness of the vigilante groups in sabotaging vital communications and supplies which became especially apparent as the armies of the democratic opposition government headed further into Valverdist territory in lesser numbers. Taking advantage of the increasing military weakness of the southern government, the Valverdist government began to order vigilante groups further south with many citizens voluntarily enlisting into these groups; it was clear that popular support outside of the government of the democratic opposition was firmly on the side of the northern ultranationalist government. These groups were immensely successful in conquering territory held by the southern government, and in February 2037 the remaining armed forces of the democratic opposition that have not entered into Valverdist territory would defect to the northern government and join the vigilante groups, prompting the southern government to flee into neighbouring Castadilla with Valverdist president Ernesto Allende declaring victory on 15 March 2037.

Not long after the civil war had ended, the victorious Valverdist government would invade its northern neighbour of Arona and spark the Central Vallosi War which saw not only direct intervention from both Urcea and Castadilla, the latter serving as the main leader of the Vallosi forces against the Valverdists, but also the eventual dissolution of Almadaria as both an independent nation as well as a national concept.

Background

Recent Almadarian history

Since 1963, Almadaria had been undergoing a long and arduous process of democratisation after the fall of the Osmian regime. Initially under the nation's third federal republic, the idea for democratisation involved the establishment of a special committee which would guide Almadaria through a three-step decade-long process known as the "democratic tutelage" in which the citizenry would be taught about both the democratic processes as well as the constitutional values and the fundamental principles of the rule of law. In an effort to prevent a possible fall to dictatorship from happening again, there were also additional checks and balances set up in exchange for preserving the presidential form of government that was put in place. For all intents and purposes, the third presidential republic was intended to serve as the beginning of a new Almadaria; a clean start for the republic which divorced itself from the previous constitutions and governments which were seen as being abysmally inadequate for democratic governance due to their perceived vulnerabilities to democratic backsliding.

The process of "democratic tutelage" would, however, experience some major roadblocks despite numerous national and international observers predicting that this would finally bring Almadaria under the rule of a sincere constitutional republic after over a century. This roadblock came in the form of the department governments which held a lot of power and influence for many years, even during the Osmian regime, and were largely not so keen on allowing the process of "democratic tutelage" to go according to plan when it could spell an end to the long-standing political machinery which had emerged during the first federal republic. These sub-national elites also held power and influence over who got to represent their department on the national level; very few legislators were able to become electable without the support of their department's political machinery. These legislators, being loyal to their departments, were urged by their bosses to engage in very long filibusters and tack on unwanted additions to the "democratic tutelage" process to lengthen it as well as to immensely delay its completion; this was most notably accomplished by adding on asinine historical lessons and exams that were nearly impossible to pass.

Getting tired of the constant delays and additions to the "democratic tutelage" process, Almadaria's provisional president Raul Hernandez, with the advice and support of the justices of the First Court of Almadaria, passed an executive order in 1995 which declared the third federal republic to be dissolved and its constitution rendered to be no longer in effect. The subsequent constitutional convention would borrow heavily from the 1963 constitution, but with a major rewrite of the exact powers of the sub-national divisions of the nation, thus allowing the republic to centralise extensively and to purge the government of the old political elite which had proven themselves to be obstructionistic and not at all supportive of democratisation if it meant that they would be removed from office. Almadaria's first truly democratic election in over fifty years was held that same year with the pro-democracy and christian democratic Social Unity Party (PUS), led by popular political figure Pedro Montillo, winning both the presidential and legislative elections with a clear mandate in favour of the re-democratisation process but this time without the need for a tutelage period nor the fear of departmental obstructionism.

This period of modern Almadarian history, which to historiography is known as the "democratic honeymoon" period, was put to a swift and bitter end in 1998 when President Montillo was embroiled in a massive corruption scandal involving numerous bribes, with some of the earliest instances dating back to the 1970s, which were revealed. To further reverse the fortunes of the pro-democracy groups in Almadaria, the PUS, which was seen as the main leader of the pro-democracy groups in the country, was struck by a series of PUS politicians being indicted for their role during the latter years of the Osmian regime as brutal law enforcement officers as well as the revelation of a slush fund. These scandals, which happened almost at once, were instrumental in both the collapse of the PUS as well as the general public in Almadaria turning against re-democratisation. One of the main anti-democratic opposition groups which stood to gain the most from these scandals was the Valverdian Popular Front (FPV) which was led by Arturo Nuñez whose eight terms would see the country drift back towards democratic backsliding as the government became a statist, socially conservative cultural nationalist regime under the increasing grip of the FPV.