Central Vallosi War
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| Central Vallosi War | |||||||
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 Almadaria |
 Urcea Castadilla | ||||||
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The Central Vallosi War was an armed conflict between Valverdist Almadaria and an international coalition led by Urcea with Castadilla serving as the main leader of the Almadarian front. The conflict against the ultranationalist regime in Almadaria is divided into two main phases: The War of the Liberation of Arona from the war's beginning in 2037 until late 2039, which consisted of the entirety of Urcea's direct involvement in the conflict and focused on the liberation of Arona; and the War of the Astol Plains that spanned almost the entirety of the war, which consisted of Castadilla's eventual conquest and annexation of Almadaria thus ending the nation's almost two-century-long independence in 204X. The war was also the first major conflict in Vallos since the colonial era.
In 2037, just months after his victory in the Almadarian Civil War, Valverdist President Ernesto Allende began an invasion of the neighbouring Urcen protectorate of Arona and was able to conquer the entire country within a span of a week. Arona was seen by Valverdists as being an integral part of Valverdia, a pseudohistorical irredentist concept which claims the entirety of Almadaria and Arona as well as half of Castadilla and parts of northern Takatta Loa as supposedly being a part of a long-lost medieval-era Vallosi empire. The conquest of Arona would see the establishment of a temporary "occupation republic" before being quickly integrated into Almadaria a day after the "republic" was declared. The invasion and subsequent conquest of Arona was met with immediate condemnation from both members of the Vallosi Economic Association (VEA) as well as the international community, with Urcea calling for the formation of an international coalition to liberate its protectorate from Almadaria occupation. The coalition would also collaborate with the VEA, whose members had been embarking on military build-ups to try and counter the increasing threat of the Valverdists, with Castadilla being a major Vallosi contributor to the war effort. The liberation of Arona took just over two years to accomplish, due to stiff pushback from "vigilante" militias and initially successful lightning warfare tactics which soon became less effective due to the robustness of Castadillaan and Urcean forces, and once Arona was liberated the fall of the Valverdist forces would soon follow in short succession before ending with the Fall of Piedratorres in 204X.
Because the Valverdist government was not internationally recognised, the war also took on the meaning of restoring a legitimate democratic government to Almadaria, one way or another. This ultimately took on the form of having Almadaria become a part of Castadilla, which was voted in an internationally-recognised referendum voted on by Almadarian expats, which was accomplished through an occupation system designed to deradicalise, and democratise the former Almadarian territories in three phases of governance; military occupation, democratic tutelage, and constitutional governance. The war was also seen as a sign that the VEA need to be granted more powers, making it into more of a supranational economic and political union like the Levantine Union and complete with the establishment of the Vallosi Defense Commission for coordination between the armed forces of member states.
Background
Roughly a year prior to the start of the Central Vallosi War, Almadaria was an increasingly authoritarian, illiberal democracy under the presidency of the moderate conservative nationalist Arturo Nuñez who had co-opted certain elements of Valverdism, but had largely disavowed it due to it being a pseudohistorical theory that promoted what he deemed to be a rather destructive form of militarism. The co-opting of some Valverdist rhetoric was initially seen as a good thing in the eyes of the Revenant Valverdist Vanguard, but when Nuñez disavowed the group they were pushed further towards extremism. This nascent extremism had allowed for Ernesto Allende to become the VVR's leader in the mid-2000s which meant that he could finally formalise Valverdism as a political ideology beyond the initial pseudohistorical theory; this was how modern Valverdism came to be as an ultranationalist, syncretic political movement with heavy irredentist and revanchist elements.
The turn towards extremism would make the Nuñez presidency declare the VVR a terror group and thus was considered to be banned under punishment of harsh imprisonment sentences. To Nuñez, moderate Occidental-based nationalism was the proper alternative to Castadillaan-style socialist multiculturalism; indeed he believed that although the Occidental-descended people of Vallos were at risk of potentially losing their heritage, the overtly hostile narrative that the VVR had been pushing was a detriment due to the group's desire to subjugate any and all non-Occidental ethnic groups in Vallos. As relations between the Nuñez government and the VVR further deteriorated into hostilities, the latter group began to conduct a series of terror attacks all across Almadaria, with the most notable attacks happening in the northern half of the country which eventually culminated in an uprising occurring in the nation's capital of Piedratorres in September 2036 which involved both VVR members and "vigilante" militias that were aligned with the VVR despite being independent. The uprising would see the overthrow and death of president Nuñez while VVR leader Ernesto Allende declared himself the new president "by will of the rebels".
Members of the Almadarian democratic opposition had opposed the VVR's victory in the uprising and so fled with most of the armed forces to southern Almadaria where they established a rival democratic government. The two governments would enter into armed conflict on 1 October 2036, with only the democratic government in the south receiving international recognition. For the first two months of the Almadarian Civil War the democratic forces were initially poised to soundly defeat the Valverdist forces by Christmas, but in mid-December the fortunes of the democratic forces have quickly reversed with the Valverdist forces seemingly proving themselves to be a more effective fighting force. In February of 2037, the vast majority of the democratic forces have decided to defect to the Valverdists, with the democratic government making preparations to evacuate to neighbouring Castadilla. Valverdist president Allende would declare victory over the democratic forces on 15 March that same year.
In the months leading up to the invasion of Arona, Almadaria's neighbours began to intensify armament measures and building up their respective armed forces in preparation for a possible attack or even invasion from the Valverdist government. There were also calls to turn the Vallosi Economic Association, which already had served as the primary diplomatic meeting place for member states, into a supranational union more akin to the Levantine Union; this meant that an amendment to the Treaty of Emérida d'u Mar was required as the treaty did not provide provisions for the eventuality that the VEA would become more than what many had seen as just an economic trading bloc.
Timeline
Invasion of Arona
Although Almadaria's neighbours had expected an invasion to occur, what they did not expect was for the Valverdist government to invade the Urcean protectorate of Arona. As a protectorate of Urcea, that meant that any aggressive action taken against Arona would risk incurring retaliation from Urcea, and the rest of the nations in Vallos, already knowing that there was no point in instigating a war on the subcontinent, were well aware of such a possibility and so any actions taken in regards to Arona remained exclusively within the realm of diplomacy. The Valverdist government, whether due to an onset of complacency in their overall militaristic capabilities or an eagerness to restore Valverdia, had decided in a secret meeting between president Allende and his generals that the conquest of Arona would serve as the first step towards dominating the subcontinent and probably even believed that conquering Arona would not result in any retaliatory action from either Urcea or their neighbours. Preparations for the invasion were done clandestinely, with the strategy being to send in "vigilantes" that would sabotage the Aronese telecommunications infrastructure which would serve as the prologue to the first of the invasion forces into the area.
The invasion of Arona began on 19 July 2037, starting with a surprise attack that made use of lightning warfare tactics which proved a big success against the Aronese forces. The attack came to as a surprise to the VEA which had expected the Valverdist government to maintain a similar if not slightly more aggressive rhetoric towards its neighbours like the preceding Nuñez presidency had done. The invasion lasted about a week, and was a Valverdist victory. To hasten the integration of the newly-conquered territory, Almadaria would set up a so-called "occupation republic" which would handle the internal affairs of Arona and prepare it for minority rule over the majority Tainean population. This republic lasted only two weeks before it was integrated into Almadaria proper. The invasion and subsequent conquest of Arona was met with international condemnation as well as preparations for outright war in Vallos from amongst the VEA membership; the success of the invasion exacerbated fears of an imminent future invasion. The result was the establishment of the Vallosi Defence Commission, the VEA's primary defence agency serving as a primary means of coordination between the armed forces of each VEA member state.
Formation of an international coalition
As the Vallosi Defense Commission was established, Arona's protector Urcea began to make calls for an international coalition intended to disarm the Valverdist occupation forces and liberate all occupied territories. To ensure stable communications, and because of the VEA's very precautionary reactions made in light of the Valverdist victory in the Almadarian Civil Wat, the coalition was to be led by a Vallosi nation. The honour was given to Castadilla, not only because the nation was the first to have began rearmament in response to tensions with Almadaria, but also because of the strategic advantage of sharing a long border with Almadaria; Castadillaan forces had many options in where they could cross the border and especially as much of the Almadarian forces were still serving as occupation forces in Arona and thus would not be able to reach the Castadillaan forces for about a week.
Other nations that were interested in joining the international coalition include Takatta Loa and Lucrecia, both being members of the Vallosi Defense Commission, and Tierrador, which has had historically positive relations with Castadilla and its preceding governments.